Japanese restaurant chain operator Colowide Co. said Tuesday it will extend the deadline for its takeover bid for Ootoya Holdings Co. to Sept. 8 from the initially planned Aug. 25.

Colowide, which runs a wide range of Japanese-style pubs and restaurants including the grilled beef eatery chain Gyu-Kaku, launched the tender offer on July 10 but failed to gain a 45 percent stake, the targeted lower limit of the takeover bid, in Ootoya through Tuesday.

Colowide currently holds a 19.16 percent stake in Ootoya, which operates Japanese-style set-menu eatery chain restaurants. Also on Tuesday, Colowide had the lower limit of its targeted stake revised down to 40 percent, to increase the possibility of a successful takeover bid.

Colowide said in a statement that a 40 percent stake is expected to be enough to reshuffle Ootoya's directors, as less than an 80 percent voting right has been exercised at Ootoya's recent shareholders' meetings.

Ootoya has opposed the hostile takeover by Colowide and requested that its shareholders not sell their stakes to the izakaya restaurant operator, saying the latter's method of distributing prepared meals from central kitchens to its outlets will "clearly lower" the quality of food.

Ootoya features what it calls healthy and "mom's food" cooked on-site at each restaurant.

==Kyodo

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