Olympus ex-director sets up website calling for woodford

Olympus Corp. (7733) should reinstate Michael C. Woodford as head to rebuild trust after the camera and endoscope maker admitted to hiding losses, a retired company director said. Koji Miyata, 70, set up the website “Olympus Grassroots” on Nov. 11, and it now has at least 356 people registered as supporters including some existing employees, he said. Miyata, who was a director at Olympus between 1995 and 2006 and has known Woodford for 25 years, said he didn’t contact the former chief executive officer about the website. Woodford was fired as president and CEO on Oct. 14 after he confronted the board about over-sized payments made to advisers in the acquisition of Gyrus Group Plc in 2008. Olympus revealed last week it used the purchase of Gyrus and three other takeovers to cover up losses on investments dating back decades. “I want support from employees so that management will reinstate Woodford,” Miyata said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “He was the only one who acted right as a director when all the allegations emerged.” Olympus has lost about 75 percent of its market value since Woodford was ousted. The stock fell today for the first time in five days, declining 16 percent to 625 yen at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo trading. Okayama University Hospital decided to cancel an endoscope order for Olympus, Dr. Yoshiro Kawahara said, joining shareholders including Southeastern Asset Management Inc. in criticizing corporate governance at the 92-year-old company. Endoscopes in Hospital “My impression is Olympus turned 180 degrees,” Kawahara said in a phone interview yesterday. “It’s a terrible company to me now.” Okayama University Hospital has nine endoscopes priced at as much as 10 million yen ($130,000) apiece, the 46-year-old doctor said. Eight of them are made by Olympus, and one is made by Hoya Corp.’s Pentax, he said. Baillie Gifford & Co. and Harris Associates LP are among investors petitioning for Woodford’s return. Southeastern Asset, which owns about 5 percent of Olympus, said Nov. 8 that Olympus board members should resign immediately and an emergency general meeting of shareholders be called. Olympus President Shuichi Takayama called Miyata’s website “noise,” according to his note posted on the company’s internal website on Nov. 15.