Olympus appoints panel for takeovers probe

Crisis-torn Japanese camera giant Olympus today named six men, including a former supreme court judge, to investigate past takeover deals after its British chief executive was sacked for whistleblowing.

None of the all-Japanese group, including an accountant with past experience of investigating corporations, have any previous association with the company, an Olympus spokeswoman said.

As yet, no deadline for the group to report its findings has been set.They will look into $687 million (£431.2 million) in payments made to a financial adviser for the $2 billion purchase of British medical equipment maker Gyrus in 2008 - the biggest such payment ever - and the acquisition of three companies in Japan that Olympus, under chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa's decade-long reign at the company, later largely wrote off.

Investors were watching for any attempt by Olympus management to appoint investigators who may be sympathetic to their position.

"I won't be dealing with Olympus shares any longer until everything becomes clear," a fund manager said, declining to be identified.

Pressure on Olympus to clean house has intensified in the past several days, even after the resignation of Kikukawa, the executive who led the ousting of chief executive Michael Woodford.

Woodford said he was sacked for asking too many questions about the deals. Olympus says it did nothing wrong and insists the Briton had to go because he was a poor manager.