ADK is to delist from the Tokyo Stock Exchange from 16 March. The move follows Bain Capital’s purchase of the company last year. ADK first listed in 1987 as Asatsu Inc, and later as Asatsu-DK Inc after merging with Dai-ichi kikaku.
David Gross-Loh, the Bain Capital managing director who led the bid to buy ADK, has been named as a director of the company. He will share the board with president and group chief executive Shinichi Ueno, Yuji Sugimoto, a director and member of the audit and supervisory committee, and two outside directors, Toshio Kinoshita and Naofumi Nishi.
Among the directors standing down is Noriyuki Nakai, who will become executive vice-president, operating officer and group chief strategy officer. Stuart Neish, WPP’s regional director for Asia-Pacific, will also stand down as a non-executive director. The personnel changes will take effect from 29 March.
Bain Capital’s bid for ADK resulted in a period of bitter wrangling as WPP attempted to block the deal and retain its business alliance with the Japanese company. Bain ultimately paid US$1.35 billion for the agency.
ADK is expected to unveil a strategy for development under Bain on 1 April. Nakai recently spoke to Campaign in broad terms about his company’s aims, which include deriving more benefit from investments in content and becoming more data-centric.
