Elliott weighs tender offer for Toyota Industries, Nikkei reports
FILE PHOTO: Banknotes of Japanese yen are seen in this illustration picture taken September 22, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo
TOKYO, Jan 29 : Activist investor Elliott Investment Management is considering a tender offer for Toyota Industries, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday, in what could further complicate an effort by the Toyota group to take the forklift maker private.
Elliott has criticised the auto group's bid for Toyota Industries, at 18,800 yen ($123.21) a share, as too low, calling on shareholders not to tender into the revised offer price. Toyota Industries' shares rose 1.3 per cent to 19,845 yen on Thursday.
The take-private plan, first proposed last June at 16,300 yen per share, has come under fire from investors criticising what they argued was an opaque valuation methodology and a process that failed to protect minority shareholder interests.
Pressure on the world's largest automaker increased after Elliott, one of the world's most prominent activist hedge funds, disclosed its stake in November. Its stake stood at 6.65 per cent as of the latest filing last week.
Citing an unnamed source, the Nikkei reported that Elliott's stake may have risen further since then, and that it was exploring a rival bid to prevent shareholders of Toyota Industries from tendering their shares.
The transaction is being closely watched by global investors as it coincides with Japan's push to unwind cross-shareholdings and bolster corporate governance standards. Toyota Motor, group real estate company Toyota Fudosan and Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda are aiming to take the company private.
Toyota Fudosan and Toyota Industries declined to comment. Elliott and Toyota Motor did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
($1 = 152.5800 yen)
