Toyota to take private key unit in $26bln deal
TOKYO - Toyota Motor will take private a key supplier of its group, it said on Tuesday, in a $26 billion deal, marking a landmark repositioning of Japan's most important corporation.
Under the terms of the deal, unlisted real estate company Toyota Fudosan will launch a tender offer for shares of Toyota Industries for 3.7 trillion yen ($26 billion), the companies said.
Separately, Toyota said it plans to buy back its own shares from Toyota Industries.
Japanese companies have come under growing scrutiny from the market regulator and investors in recent years about their cross-shareholdings in affiliates and business partners, sparking a rise in both management buyouts and acquisitions.
Many of the deals have been driven by expectations that a corporate governance overhaul will bring better shareholder returns.
Toyota had said in April it was considering participating in a potential buyout of Toyota Industries - a move that sources have said would help improve the group's corporate governance.
Toyota owned about 24% of Toyota Industries as of September last year, while Toyota Industries held around 9% of the world's biggest automaker and more than 5% of Denso, another major Toyota supplier and Toyota group company.
Toyota Industries, formerly Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, was founded in 1926 by Sakichi Toyoda to make automatic looms. An automotive division within the company was set up and later spun off as Toyota Motor.
In addition to forklifts, Toyota Industries manufactures the RAV4 sport utility vehicle for Toyota and also produces car parts such as engines, air-conditioning compressors, batteries and converters.
($1 = 142.6500 yen)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Zawya
an hour ago
- Zawya
The world's auto supply chain is in the hands of a few Chinese bureaucrats
In a hulking grey building just east of Tiananmen square in Beijing, a small team in China's Ministry of Commerce is deciding the fate of the global auto industry, one rare earth magnet export permit at a time. China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets - a crucial component in electric vehicle motors - and it added them to an export control list in April as part of its trade war with the United States, forcing all exporters to apply to Beijing for licenses. It falls to the Bureau of Industrial Security and Import and Export Control - which is part of China's Ministry of Commerce - to review export permits for the rare earth magnets, which are vital for car motors, wind turbines and even U.S. F-35 fighter jets. While dozens of licences have been issued since late April, executives, lobbyists and diplomats say they are only a small fraction of the applications that have flooded in from automakers, semiconductor companies and aerospace firms around the world since the tougher export controls were introduced. Washington says delays in issuing export licences show China is reneging on commitments made during trade talks in Geneva last month and it has retaliated with export curbs on plane engine parts and other equipment. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks by phone on Thursday as the escalating dispute over China's rare earth stranglehold threatened to derail the fragile trade truce agreed between the two superpowers. When the new rare earth magnet measures came in, the export control bureau had a total of just 30 staff, though this has since been doubled to around 60, according to two sources who were briefed on a meeting between the ministry and Chinese and European semiconductor firms last week. "We appreciate that MOFCOM has increased its resources to address demand and they're working hard and long hours on these issues," said Adam Dunnett, Secretary General of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, referring to the ministry. "But the reality is this is having a huge impact on a wide variety of sectors. It's something that could have been better planned and rolled out," he said. According to personnel records posted to the Ministry of Commerce's website in June 2024, there are only three senior officials within the bureau who can approve the export permits. The ministry's website lists the export licence bureau's office hours as: Weekdays, 8:30-11:30 a.m., 14:00-17:00 p.m. Reuters was unable to determine current staffing levels or whether more officials are now able to approve applications. The Ministry of Commerce did not respond to questions from Reuters on this subject. CHOKEPOINT The global alarm over shortages underscores the enormous leverage China has acquired through its near-monopoly on rare earth production. It also reveals a complex bureaucratic process that has gone from checkpoint to chokepoint. "The process for our suppliers to apply for export licences for various rare earths ... since April, is complex and time-consuming, partly due to the need to collect and provide a lot of information," a spokesperson for Bosch, the German engineering and technology multinational, said last month. A Chinese-language guide to the process published by the Ministry in late March runs to almost 14,000 Mandarin characters. European auto suppliers alone have filed hundreds of requests since early April, with only about a quarter granted. These applications can range from dozens to hundreds of pages, according to sources who have either filed requests or been briefed about them. Public Ministry of Commerce guidelines require information including technical product descriptions, signed contracts. Descriptions of production facilities and photos of products are also encouraged. China's stated aim is to ensure dual-use items don't end up in military equipment, but officials are often overly cautious even though many applications clearly state commercial use, Dunnett said. "Another concern we have heard from some companies is that they are being asked for sensitive and excessive information that is part of their intellectual property which has led to delays in their applications," Dunnett added. While applications are meant to be processed in 45 working days, the ministry says applications related to national security will take longer, without defining how long. 'STRATEGIC EXCUSE' Cory Combs, head of critical mineral and supply chain research at Trivium China, a policy research group, said it was not clear whether the delays were due to bureaucratic inertia or intentional weaponisation. "We do expect these applications to U.S. end-users to be reviewed on par with other countries and approved whenever they're not for military use," he said. "The issue here is that, is it quick enough for the Trump administration to believe that Beijing has not reneged on the Geneva agreement?" Some U.S. industry figures believe that the bureaucratic backlog is a "strategic excuse". "China can staff up as fast as they want, if they wanted to," said a source from the U.S. rare earths industry who declined to be named for sensitivity reasons. In public, Chinese officials have said the export controls apply to all countries, the implication being that they do not count as a U.S.-specific countermeasure under the Geneva agreement. Foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on May 30 that the rare earth export controls are "non-discriminatory and not targeted at any specific country". During the Geneva talks, however, China privately admitted that the rare earth export controls qualified as non-tariff countermeasures, according to a source briefed on the talks. Rare earths remain a core part of ongoing U.S.-China discussions, the person said. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. Chinese scholars openly admit that the rare earth export controls are retaliation for U.S. chip curbs. "It's a short-term form of leverage which doesn't hurt China, as the rare earths in question have relatively low monetary value," said Zhu Junwei, an international relations scholar at the Grandview Institution, a Chinese think-tank. (Reporting by Laurie Chen and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by David Clarke)
Khaleej Times
an hour ago
- Khaleej Times
Suzuki Motor halted Swift production due to China's rare earth curbs, sources say
Suzuki Motor's suspension of production of its flagship Swift subcompact is due to China's rare earth restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said, becoming the first Japanese automaker to be affected by the export curbs. The small car maker halted production of the Swift, excluding the Swift Sport version, from May 26 citing a shortage of components. Plans to resume output have been pushed back several times. Suzuki now expects a partial restart of production on June 13 with full resumption after June 16, as the "prospect of parts supply is clearer" now, it said in a statement. The company declined to comment on the reason for the suspension. The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak on the matter. China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors. Alarm over the situation has grown with global automakers warning of potential production halts. Some European auto parts plants have suspended output and Mercedes-Benz is considering ways to protect against shortages of rare earths. Japan is planning to propose strengthening cooperation with the United States on rare earth supply chains in upcoming tariff talks, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday. The Nikkei was the first to report on the reason for the Swift model suspension. (Reporting by Maki Shiraki in Tokyo and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim, Christopher Cushing and Edwina Gibbs)
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
What's new in the Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles remaster coming to PlayStation 5?
During Wednesday's PlayStation State of Play showcase, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, a remaster of the popular tactical role-playing game, will release on September 30 for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. Set in the richly imagined world of Ivalice, the game follows the story of Ramza Beoulve and Delita Heiral, childhood friends caught in the political and religious strife of the War of the Lions. First released in Japan on June 20, 1997, for the Sony PlayStation, it marked Square Enix's first game in the tactical role-playing genre. Arriving in North America in January 1998, the game was both a critical and commercial success. In Japan, it sold about 1.24 million copies by the end of 1997, making it the fifth best-selling home video game in the country that year. By August 2011, global sales surpassed 2.4 million copies. Here are all the additions and changes fans can expect from the new remaster when it arrives in September. What's being added? An auto-save feature will be introduced for the first time in the game's history. This addition fixes one of the long-standing frustrations of the original, which is the risk of losing progress due to difficult battles or forgetting to save the game. The new system automatically saves progress at key moments, such as before and after missions, giving player a more forgiving and modern experience. While maintaining the challenge famous in tactical RPG games, auto-save gives players more accessibility and convenience, especially for newcomers or those revisiting Ivalice on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Have graphics been updated? The remastered Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will feature significant graphical enhancements that give a new look to the classic game. Character models and environments are updated with high-definition visuals, showing details and vibrant colours. Battle animations have also been refined, offering smoother and more dynamic combat sequences. Spell effects and environmental elements, such as weather phenomena, have been improved to provide a more immersive experience. The user interface has been optimised for modern platforms, ensuring easy navigation and accessibility. Will the story be the same? The remastered game will retain the popular improved translation from the 2007 War of the Lions release, which offers a refined narrative experience. This translation adopts a more formal, medieval-inspired tone, aligning with the game's setting and themes. While some fans have voiced appreciation for the elevated language, which enhances the game's atmosphere, others prefer the original's straightforward approach. The remaster allows players to choose between the enhanced version with fully voiced dialogue and updated visuals, and the classic version that preserves the original gameplay alongside the War of the Lions translation. Which consoles will it be playable on? Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is scheduled for release on September 30 and will be available on multiple platforms, including PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S and Windows PCs. Previous versions of the game were only playable on the original PlayStation, as well as improved ports of the game on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita.
