Toyota tender offer for Toyota Industries succeeds
Toyota logo is seen in this illustration taken July 28, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
TOKYO, March 24 : The Toyota group's tender offer to take supplier Toyota Industries private at a price of 20,600 yen ($129.89) per share has been successful, the forklift maker said in a filing on Tuesday.
The deal valued the unit at around $30 billion. According to data from Recofdata going back to that year, it was the biggest between Japanese companies since at least 1985.
More than 191 million shares were tendered during the offer period that closed on Monday, equivalent to 63.60 per cent ownership, exceeding the 42.01 per cent held by shareholders classified as minority owners that needed to accept the offer, the filing showed.
TOYOTA RAISED OFFER PRICE TWICE
Earlier this month, Toyota increased its offer for the company from 18,800 yen per share, bringing to an end a months-long standoff with activist fund Elliott Investment Management.
Toyota last year initially bid 16,300 yen per share and raised its offer twice, with the final price representing a 26 per cent premium to its original proposal.
"When Elliott mentioned that they were going to tender into the offer, it was pretty much a done deal," said James Hong, head of mobility research at Macquarie.
ELLIOTT HAD REJECTED PREVIOUS OFFERS AS TOO LOW
Hong said he was more surprised that Toyota raised its offer a second time than by the size of the increase. "Eventually, the degree of your price hike is set by the market," he said.
Elliott, which had rejected earlier offers as too low, agreed to tender its shares after the automaker lifted its bid to 20,600 yen, calling the price an "improved outcome" for minority shareholders.
The deal had been closely watched as a test of Japan's corporate governance reforms.
($1 = 158.6000 yen)
