TOKYO :Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda has proposed the acquisition of supplier Toyota Industries in a possible 6 trillion yen ($42 billion) deal, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
Toyota Industries, which makes parts for the automaker, has formed a special committee after receiving the proposal and has hired advisers to examine the offer, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal, if executed, would mark a massive buyout for corporate Japan and it would give Toyoda, the grandson of the automaker’s founder, full control over one of the major companies among the sprawling Toyota group. Toyota Industries, which began as a maker of textile looms, is the company from which Toyota Motor eventually developed, giving it symbolic importance within the group.
Today, it continues to make textile machinery, as well as car engines and electronics, and stamping dies.
No one was immediately available for comment at Toyota Motor or Toyota Industries outside regular working hours.
The potential deal comes as Japan has seen a surge in both management buyouts and corporate acquisitions. Many of the deals have been driven by expectations that a corporate governance overhaul will bring better shareholder returns as well as belief that the economy has finally turned the corner after years of painful deflation.
($1 = 143.5300 yen)
