Fujitsu Ltd. shares fell after the company said it asked former President Kuniaki Nozoe to resign for his links to a firm with an “unfavorable reputation,” revising an earlier statement he quit for health reasons.

Japan’s biggest provider of computer services fell 3.1 percent to 566 yen as of 10:18 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the biggest drop among companies on the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average, which rose 1.5 percent.

Fujitsu also removed Nozoe as an adviser, it said in a statement March 6, a day after the Asahi newspaper reported the former president wanted to be reinstated because the company in September gave false reasons for his resignation. Etsuro Yamada, a Tokyo-based spokesman at Fujitsu, confirmed the company had received a letter from Nozoe’s lawyer requesting the resignation be reversed and declined to comment further.

“At the time both sides probably wanted to avoid damaging anybody’s reputation, but there’s a problem here with the company’s disclosure,” said Yuichi Ishida, an analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. in Tokyo. “At a time when the company is struggling to compete globally, this kind of internal confusion isn’t helpful.”

 source:C114