Toyota traditionally has been overly politically correct, never making a bold statement or saying something that could displease a competitor.

Executive Vice President Didier Leroy showed the new face of a much more adventurous Toyota at the Tokyo auto show this week.

Below are edited remarks the French executive, who is the right arm of Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, made at a dinner on the sidelines of the show.

Toyota could buy another one, two or three companies to be the world’s No.1 automaker again, but chasing volume for the sake of being No.1 is pointless. Toyota had consistently sold over 10 million units a year, so we have scale. And customers buy products and brands, not a position in the automaker ranking.

When will Toyota launch its first full EV? It will come and you'll see it when it's ready. While other automakers circulate detailed PowerPoints of their far future product plans, we unveil a new product only when it's ready, so our customers can buy it and our dealers can sell it.

At Toyota, we aim for profitable growth, so selling an EV and losing $10,000 per unit as Tesla does is not a sound business model in our view.

Have a close look at EV sales in Europe: they are strong in Norway, significant in France – thanks to Renault-Nissan – and growing in Germany, but in the rest of Europe they are basically zero. Zero!

At Toyota, we took some crucial decisions on diesels well ahead of the Volkswagen diesel scandal. We decided in 2014 not to offer a diesel on the CH-R (compact crossover). Here in Tokyo on December 1, 2011, I signed the contract to buy diesel engines from BMW for some of our European products because we had decided – almost six years ago – that investing in diesel engine development was no longr a priority at Toyota. By the way, at that time, 40 percent of our European sales were diesels, now they are 15 percent.

UMW seeks controlling stake in Perodua, to take MBM Resources private at RM2.56 apiece




Posted on 9 March 2018 - 07:18pm
sunbiz@thesundaily.com

PETALING JAYA: UMW Holdings Bhd is seeking to become the largest stakeholder in Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) via the proposed acquisitions of shares in MBM Resources Bhd and Perodua.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, UMW said it has made a conditional offer to Med-Bumikar Mara Sdn Bhd and its wholly owned subsidiary Central Shore Sdn Bhd for a collective equity interest of 50.07% in MBM Resources.

The MBM Resources offer is priced at RM501 million or RM2.56 per share to be settled in cash, valuing MBM Resources at about RM1 billion. If the offer is accepted, UMW will be obliged to extend the proposed mandatory offer (MO).

The RM2.56 offer price represents a 13.3% premium to MBM Resources' five-day volume weighted average market price of RM2.26.

UMW does not intend to maintain the listing status of MBM Resources subsequent to the proposed MO. The take over offer will remain open for acceptance until 5pm on March 28.

UMW has also made a conditional offer to PNB Equity Resource Corporation Sdn Bhd (PERC) for its 10% equity interest in Perodua at a price of RM417.5 million or RM29.80 per share, valuing Perodua at RM4.175 billion.

The offer will be satisfied via the issuance of 49.26 million new UMW shares at an issue price of RM6.09 and RM117.5 million cash.

UMW's wholly owned subsidiary UMW Corporation Sdn Bhd currently holds 38% equity interest in Perodua while MBM Resources holds 22.58% effective equity interest in Perodua.

After completion of the proposed MBM Resources acquisition and assuming full acceptance of the proposed MO, UMW's effective interest in Perodua will increase from 38% to 60.6%, which will further increase to 70.6% after the completion of the proposed Perodua acquisition.

UMW said the proposals will allow it to increase its strategic stake in Perodua, a leading marque in Malaysia with successful recent launches, as well as increase its exposure in the commercial vehicle segment via MBM Resources' multi-brand dealerships namely Daihatsu and Hino vehicles.

"MBM Resources' auto parts manufacturing business, namely its wheels manufacturing, safety products and noise, vibration and harshness products will also widen UMW's offerings in the manufacturing segment," it said.

UMW expects the proposed acquisitions to further improve its prospects in the automotive segment by leveraging on Perodua's strength in the national car segment, coupled with its existing presence in the non-national car segment via the Toyota marque.