Friday, August 07
TOKYO: 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.This month, Toyota sweetened its bid by 15% to around $27.8 billion but failed to quell the uprising. Elliott Investment Management said the revised 18,800 yen-a-share offer undervalued TICO by almost 40% -- and potentially much more as a standalone entity.The U.S.-based activist fund, which holds 6.7% of TICO, has attacked the bid as opaque and said it falls short of basic governance standards. Since Toyota announced its initial 16,300 yen-a-share offer in June, Elliott has led the charge for a higher
