On the Dash:
- Forklift dealers and industrial equipment resellers may see ownership changes influence product strategy and support structures.
- Higher valuations and private ownership could affect dealers’ financing, leasing, and investment decisions.
- Dealers should monitor potential operational shifts in Toyota Industries’ automotive and forklift segments.
Elliott Investment Management has agreed to a sweetened bid for Toyota Industries that values the company at almost $40 billion, paving the way for the Japanese forklift maker to be taken private.
The U.S. activist investor said Monday that it believed the new terms, following months of discussions with Toyota group companies, represented an improved outcome for minority shareholders. Elliott had opposed previous terms, arguing they substantially undervalued Toyota Industries and that a stand-alone plan could offer a higher valuation.
Toyota Fudosan, the group’s real estate arm, said Monday it planned to raise its tender offer price for Toyota Industries to ¥20,600 a share ($132), up from its previous offer of ¥18,800. The new offer values Toyota Industries at approximately $39.66 billion. Elliott held about 7.7% of Toyota Industries, according to a February regulatory filing.
Toyota Fudosan is privately held by Toyota group companies, with Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda also serving as its chairman. Toyota Industries, spun off from Toyota Motor in 1937, produces forklifts, cars, engines, other auto parts, and textile machinery.
In recent years, several Japanese companies have taken full control of listed units or sold them, responding to government pressure to improve capital efficiency and corporate governance. That environment has led to waves of activist campaigns and acquisitions by domestic and foreign investors.
Elliott previously said its analysis showed Toyota Industries’ intrinsic net asset value at more than ¥26,000 a share as of Jan. 16. The activist investor said a stand-alone plan offers a clear path to a valuation of more than ¥40,000 by 2028, with key elements including unwinding cross-shareholdings and reducing overinvestment in the automotive segment.
In January, Toyota Fudosan raised its bid to ¥16,300 per share and began the tender offer, which runs through March 16. Shares of Toyota Industries closed 1.5% higher at ¥20,535 on Monday. They were below ¥13,000 in mid-April, after the company said it received proposals, including one to take the business private.
