Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd. decided at today's meeting of the Board of Directors that it will start taking necessary measures for its transition into a holding company structure, which is planned to be completed by April 1, 2002.

The reorganization features the transfer of current business units into two newly incorporated operating companies; one dealing with the alcoholic beverages, beverages and raw alcohol business and the other dealing with the biomedical business. The entire shares of each will be held by the pure holding company. The pure holding company will be a publicly listed company assuming the legal identity of the current organization, and will be in charge of group strategy planning, group financing, group investor relations and other management functions for the entire Takara Group.

Takara is currently proceeding with its long term management plan ("TE-100") whose purpose is the overall improvement of Takara's organizational value as an entire group. In order to accomplish the purpose, Takara's "mother business" (original business), namely the businesses of alcoholic beverages, beverages and raw alcohol, should earn stable profits while the biomedical business is expected to make a remarkable leap forward. Therefore, the organizational structure will be adjusted so that each business will be able to develop further by fully demonstrating its individual competence and improve its individual competitiveness and ability to grow.

As an important step in carrying out the plan, Takara decided to separate the alcoholic beverages, beverages and raw alcohol business and the biomedical business from each other, taking into account the difference of their nature. The newly created structure consisting of a holding company and two operating companies is scheduled to start operating as of April 1, 2002 when the fifth medium-term management plan will be launched. Takara is determined to further improve its corporate value as an entire group under the new holding company structure, where each operating company will be able to make decisions promptly and operate independently by taking advantage of its uniqueness.

The transition into the holding company structure is subject to the approval of an Extraordinary Meeting of Shareholders which is to be held in February, 2002 and the approvals of relevant governmental authorities.

CURRENT STRUCTURE

Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd. Alcoholic Beverage Group Beverage Group Raw Alcohol Group Biomedical Group

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Subsidiaries and Affiliate Companies Subsidiaries and affiliate companies of alcoholic beverages and food businesses; Subsidiaries and affiliate companies of biomedical business; and Other subsidiaries

This material was provided to the following journalist organizations on Monday, November 12, 2001:
Kyoto: Kyoto Economic Journalists Club;
Osaka: Osaka Commercial and Industrial Journalists Association;
Tokyo: Agricultural Policy Club and Tokyo Commercial Club

This article is translated from press release in Japanese for your convenience.