There is method to Mitsui's finger-in-every-pie strategy

Singapore

AN increase in interest in IHH Healthcare for S$2.8 billion, an acquisition of Singapore sugar supplier SIS late last year, and a tie-up with JR East Group to open Japanese restaurant JW360° in Jewel Changi Airport in April this year sound rather hodgepodge.

But Taku Morimoto, chief executive officer of Mitsui & Co (Asia-Pacific), says no. There is a strategy behind these deals - to diversify from its mainstay resources business into the fast-growing healthcare, environment, and consumer sectors in Asia.

Mitsui has made investments in these three categories in the region recently too. For instance, in July this year, it formed a joint…