Shareholders approve Nippon Oil-Nippon Mining merger

Shareholders of Nippon Oil Corp. and Nippon Mining Holdings Inc. approved the two major Japanese oil companies’ business integration plan. The merger, approved at the two companies’ respective extraordinary shareholder meetings, will create an oil concern with a 33% share of the domestic gasoline market. Nippon Oil and Nippon Mining will set up a joint holding firm, called JX Holdings Inc., on April 1 that will come under the aegis of the parent company. By 2015, the integrated entity will cut its oil refining capacity by one-third from the two companies’ combined level at the end of 2008, in response to shrinking domestic demand. (January 27, 2010)