Japan's Nidec appoints head of automotive motor division as new CEO of ET Auto

Japanese parts maker Nidec Corp. on Wednesday selected an executive from its auto motor division as its new CEO and president, replacing the company's brash founder, 79-year-old Shigenobu Nagamori.

With the appointment, the Kyoto-based auto parts and precision motor maker seeks to end a long succession battle as it faces fierce price competition in China's electric vehicle market.

Nidec announced in a statement that Mitsuya Kishida, general manager of the automotive motor and electronic control business division, will become president and CEO on April 1, in order to draw a clear line in the succession battle. Announced.

Mr. Nagamori will become executive chairman on the same day, serving in the role for up to four years, while resigning from his current position as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO).

Nidec has fielded five executives as candidates for president in March 2023, and Kishida was expected to be selected on Wednesday to eventually succeed Nagamori as chairman.

Kishida, who attended university in Kyoto, is a relative newcomer to Nidec, joining the company in January 2022 from Sony, where he worked for nearly 40 years, and has held roles including overseeing the mobile communications division.

Mr. Nagamori, a confident and no-nonsense billionaire who founded Nidec in 1973, was appointed CEO in April 2022 after the company initially appointed former Nissan Motor Co. executive Jun Seki as CEO in 2021. He returned as CEO as a surprise.

Nagamori and Kishida will become Nidec's representative directors starting June 18, pending shareholder and board approval in June, the statement said.

According to the announcement, current president Hiroshi Kobe will be appointed as the new chairman and will serve for up to four years.

Mr. Nagamori is seeking to build Nidec into a major next-generation auto parts company, and successfully hired Mr. Seki in 2019 shortly after he handed over the top job at Nissan.

Seki became Nidec's CEO in June 2021, but was demoted less than a year later after Nagamori expressed dissatisfaction with the company's performance and stock price.

After leaving Nidec in September 2022, Mr. Seki joined Foxconn (formerly Hon Hai Precision Industries) in Taiwan in early 2023.

Nidec's stock price has fallen about 60% since the beginning of 2022.