Hajime Satomi, chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Japanese pachislot supplier and operator Sega Sammy, has sold 74 percent of his stake in the company to HS Company, an asset management company controlled by Satomi and his family. The 23,558,000 shares represent 10.12 percent of Sega Sammy’s issued capital.
Satomi—who founded Sammy Corporation, the pachinko and pachislot supplier later merged with game-maker Sega to form Sega Sammy—is now the merged company’s fifth largest shareholder. The sale makes HS Company the larges5 shareholder with a stake of 15.16 percent.
“The aim of the purchase is to allow HS Company, an asset management company, to acquire some of the shares of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. held by Hajime Satomi,” said a statement from the company, “and to hold the shares over a long term as a stable shareholder of the company.”
The move was made after the company reported a 9 percent decline in revenue for the last nine months of 2017, to ¥260.8 billion (US$2.44 billion), due to a 20 percent drop in sales in its pachislot and pachinko business.
Sega Sammy is a joint partner with Korea’s Paradise Group in the country’s first integrated resort, Paradise City, in Incheon, Korea, and also operates holiday resorts and theme parks in Japan.
The company said it is on track to open the second phase of Paradise City in 1H18, including a spa, club, retail plaza, boutique hotel and family attractions.
