ITOCHU Announces Signing of Memorandum of Understanding Towards Enhanced Human Resources Synergies with CITIC Limited and Charoen Pokphand Group Company Limited

January 18, 2016

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today the signing of a memorandum of understanding between ITOCHU and two other companies, CITIC Limited (hereinafter “CITIC”) and Charoen Pokphand Group Company Limited (hereinafter “CPG”), with which ITOCHU formed a strategic business alliance with capital participation on January 20, 2015. The memorandum prescribes joint development and fostering of talented human resources who will play a key role in the strategic business and capital alliance and enhanced synergies between the three companies with regard to human resources as a basis for increasing corporate value in the medium to long term.

The strategic significance of the abovementioned strategic business and capital alliance is that the combination of the respective strengths of what are three of the leading conglomerates in Japan, China and Asia, the use of existing business infrastructure and capabilities possessed by each company and the joint acquisition of prime assets will enable the parties to maximize their synergies across a wide business area (with a central focus on the ever expanding Chinese and Asian markets) and achieve accelerated growth.

The strengths of ITOCHU and CPG lie in the non-resource sector, primarily in the consumer-related sector. CITIC aims to achieve business diversification, in addition to its presence in the financial sector. All three companies consider that, in order to accelerate the creation of business synergies in the consumer-related, basic industry-related and natural resource-related sectors and other new business opportunities, it is essential that human resources at each company who have so far amassed a wealth of detailed information, knowledge, expertise and experience across a wide range of fields strengthen mutual ties between the partners.

The memorandum of understanding signed on this occasion identifies the construction of a strong, consolidated human resources network between the three companies—through initiatives such as short-to-long-term human resources dispatch and exchange, dispatch of employees to participate in existing training programs at each respective company, and hosting of newly created joint training seminars—as the foundation that will underpin the strategic alliance.

As the first step in this new venture, the three companies are scheduled to hold a joint training seminar during the first half of FY2016. ITOCHU head office section chief-level employees and employees with equivalent levels of administrative authority at CITIC and CPG will be selected to participate in this training seminar, which will aim to create a strong human resources network as partners, with each participant working to gain sufficient mutual understanding of the management policies, values, history and main business operations, etc., of each company and holding thorough debating sessions with a view to the creation of business synergies.

Signing Ceremony

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(In the front row from left; Dr. NARIS THAMKUEKOOL/Chief People Officer of CPG, Mr. Fumihiko Kobayashi/Director of ITOCHU, Mr. Pu Jian/Vice President of CITIC)