US EditionToyota’s Buyout Bid Sparks Clash with Activist Investors
Toyota increased its buyout offer for Toyota Industries by 15% to $27.8 billion amid opposition from Elliott Investment Management, which claims the offer undervalues the company by nearly 40%.
- This month, Toyota sweetened its buyout bid to 18,800 yen a share for Toyota Industries, but Elliott Investment Management opposed it, saying it undervalued TICO by almost 40%. The standoff pits Paul Singer’s activist fund against Toyota and chairman Akio Toyoda.
- Since June, Toyota Motor Corporation proposed an initial 16,300 yen-a-share offer to take Toyota Industries Corp. private, aiming to remove short-term profit pressure and pivot to software while Elliott Investment Management escalated price demands after disclosing a stake in November.
- Overseas investors lodged complaints with the Tokyo Stock Exchange over opaque disclosure and minority treatment, while TICO obtained three fairness opinions and shares closed at 19,585 yen on Wednesday.
- Toyota executives have shown no sign of raising the bid, with Toyota Fudosan defending the price as reflecting TICO’s intrinsic value, while Akio Toyoda invested about $6.5 million to raise his TICO stake to 0.5%.
- This dispute has become a test case for dealmaking and the `sanpo yoshi` principle, as observers debate if it can withstand activist investors' pressure amid governance backlash.
7 Articles
7 Articles
How activist investors turned a Toyota buyout into a battleground
Toyota's plan to take an affiliate private looked unremarkable at first. Instead, the bid for Toyota Industries, or TICO, ignited a battle between activist investors demanding top dollar and a Japanese corporate culture that prizes stakeholder harmony over shareholder returns.
Elliott seen having a shot at foiling controversial Toyota deal
At first glance, Elliott Investment Management appears to have an insurmountable disadvantage in its campaign to block the business group behind Toyota Motor from buying out a key unit in one of Japan’s largest take-private deals of all time. After all, the group already owns about 48% of Toyota…
A fierce opponent of the industrial empire's public offer on its Toyota Industries subsidiary at a price that it considers insufficient, the activist investor is now reflecting on his own offer.
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