Less than 1% profit growth for two consecutive years Canon CEO resigns

January 30 news, according to Bloomberg News, the world's largest camera maker Canon Inc. today announced that because two consecutive years of profit growth is expected to less than 1%, so its president and chief operating officer Uchida Heng II will resign on March 29.

Canon said in a statement that its chairman, Mitarai Shimbashi, will take over from Uchida, and Uchida will continue to serve as a consultant. Cannon’s chief financial officer Tanaka Yuzo said that Uchida Heng resigned on his own initiative and Canon planned to introduce a young management team.

Canon expects net profit for 2011 fiscal year to be approximately 250 billion yen (3.3 billion U.S. dollars), slightly higher than the previous fiscal year of 248.6 billion yen, but well below the average forecast of 340 billion yen for Bloomberg analysts. Due to the rising cost of Japanese manufacturing, Canon will increase the proportion of overseas production capacity in total production.

Canon said in the statement: “As the global economic growth slows down, the future profit growth trend remains unclear.” Affected by this news, Canon’s stock price fell 1% to 3,435 yen, and Canon’s share price has fallen by 19% since 2011.