TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Post Holdings Co (>> Japan Post Holdings Co Ltd) will pursue acquisitions in logistics and other businesses, its incoming CEO said, as the nation's biggest financial services conglomerate seeks a strong growth path after a $12 billion IPO last year.

"If there are opportunities for acquisitions, we will do and we don't limit them to the logistics business," Masatsugu Nagato told a news conference.

Nagato, 67, was picked by the company's board on Wednesday to replace current CEO Taizo Nishimuro, 80, who has been hospitalised since last month for unspecified tests. The appointment of Nagato, who is currently president of Japan Post Bank Co (>> Japan Post Bank Co Ltd), the banking unit of Japan Post Holdings, is affective April 1.

Nishimuro, former president of Toshiba Corp (>> Toshiba Corp) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, took the helm at Japan Post Holdings in 2013 and orchestrated unprecedented triple initial public offerings of the company and its banking and insurance units in November.

During his tenure, domestic-focused Japan Post Holdings also made an A$6.5 billion (3.5 billion pounds) purchase of Australian freight and logistics firm Toll, betting on the global logistics business as one of its future growth drivers.

Nagato, who started his career at what is today's Mizuho Financial Group (>> Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.), faces a difficult task of managing the company whose sheer scale dwarfs private-sector rivals.

The banking unit and the insurance unit, called Japan Post Insurance (>> Japan Post Insurance Co Ltd), are both the biggest in Japan in terms of assets, but are suffering diminishing returns on their investments, with the situation made worse by the Bank of Japan's recent policy of negative interest rates.

The parent's traditional postal business has been hit by constant decline in mail traffic. And while its parcel delivery business has been growing rapidly thanks to an increase in electronic commerce, it has not yet gained enough scale to generate significant profits.

Nagato said the BOJ's negative interest rates policy has hurt the postal bank's business, and it will try to offset the impact by investing in higher-yield assets.

The incoming CEO also faces unique managerial issues in running a company that is still majority owned by the government. Like his predecessors, he has to court politicians, bureaucrats and a politically active post office masters' group and labour union.

($1 = 1.3405 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

By Taiga Uranaka