Daio Paper and Hokuetsu Deepen Alliance With Balanced Cross-Shareholdings

Daio Paper and Hokuetsu have signed a new memorandum of understanding to deepen their strategic business alliance by moving toward a more balanced cross-shareholding structure. The companies aim to enhance joint competitiveness and corporate value by broadening cooperative measures in areas such as logistics and raw material procurement while maintaining trust with stakeholders.

As part of the new framework, each company plans to adjust its stake so that mutual voting rights initially approach but remain below 20%, with a medium-term goal of reducing cross-shareholdings to roughly 5%–10% to improve capital efficiency. Daio Paper is expected to cease being an equity-method affiliate of Hokuetsu, and both firms emphasize that the alliance’s governance impact should be limited while enabling deeper operational collaboration.