KUALA LUMPUR (July 9): AEON Co (M) Bhd has announced that its managing director Shafie Shamsuddin and deputy managing director Hiroyuki Kotera have been appointed as managing director and deputy managing director respectively of AEON Big (M) Sdn Bhd.

In a bourse filing, AEON Co said the appointments took place on July 7, and the pair will abstain from all deliberations and voting on resolutions approving all matters concerning AEON Big as they are deemed interested directors of the company.

This confirms a report by The Edge weekly last month saying that the management of AEON Co and AEON Big will be restructured and consolidated into a single organisation as part of a 10-year plan to create an agile, resilient and intrapreneurial retail organisation.

In the newspaper’s June 15 issue, the report cited an internal memorandum entitled “AEON Retail Malaysia” — likely in reference to its two retail businesses here — directing AEON Big to relocate its offices from Subang Jaya, Selangor, to AEON Co’s headquarters in Taman Maluri, Kuala Lumpur, this month.

According to the memo, AEON Retail has decided to take the “growth” approach moving forward, as the COVID-19 pandemic will have a far-reaching economic impact, especially in the retail and mall business in Malaysia, which would cause a drop in top-line trade.

The memo was signed off by Shafie as “CEO of AEON Retail Malaysia”.

The report raised questions about, among other things, the leadership and management of both entities. AEON Co did not answer questions posed by The Edge on the memo.

Japan’s AEON Co Ltd owns 51% of Bursa-listed AEON Co and 95.49% of AEON Big.

The remaining 4.51% in AEON Big is held by AEON South East Asia Sdn Bhd.

Shafie was appointed to his post in AEON Co on Jan 1. He is also a director of AEON Big.

Between July and December 2019, he was the chief strategy officer of AEON Asia Sdn Bhd.

Meanwhile, Hiroyuki Kotera joined Japan's AEON Co Ltd in 1991.

In 2016, he was appointed to Malaysia's AEON Co’s board of directors, a year after he was transferred to AEON Co in Malaysia, according to its annual report 2019.

Aeon Co shares closed unchanged at RM1, after some 4.91 million shares were done. At this current price, its market capitalisation is RM1.4 billion.