Japan's ready-to-wear giant RENOWN falls under the banner of Shandong Ruyi

According to Japanese media reports, Japan's RENOWN Corporation, which is in a restructuring period, held an extraordinary general meeting in Tokyo on the 29th. The meeting decided to implement a third-party private placement and accept three Chinese directors for Shandong Ruyi Technology Group. This means that RENOWN will be formally under the umbrella of Chinese companies.

RENOWN, a long-established company, maintained a good performance during the bubble economy. However, after the Japanese economy fell into a long-term downturn, the company was also depressed. RENOWN hopes that the restructuring of Chinese companies will be completely realized in order to achieve the goal of strengthening the financial system and expanding sales in China and other Asian markets.

RENOWN will send 4 billion yen (about RMB 310 million) to Shandong Ruyi. Shandong Ruyi will hold 41.18% of its shares as its largest shareholder. The two companies plan to set up a joint venture company in Beijing to sell branded clothes such as "Simple Life" under RENOWN in China. Strive to increase the number of stores to 2,000 after 10 years.

Shandong Ruyi, which has more than one-third of its shares, will have veto power over important decisions in its operations at shareholders' meetings.

RENOWN's March-May 2010 financial report disclosed on the 14th showed that its sales amounted to 17.3 billion yen and its operating profit was 1.3 billion yen. Due to the closure of shops and other reorganization, the two items were reduced by nearly half, and the situation was not optimistic.

A female shareholder who attended the shareholders’ meeting said: “The old company is very shocked when it falls under the umbrella of a Chinese company. But now it is an era of globalization, and we hope that it can be revived with the help of Chinese companies.”