Toyota Motor Corp. holds ¥16.3 trillion ($110 billion) worth of publicly listed shares, underscoring the strength of its finances as it embarks on stake sales of affiliates, beginning with Denso Corp. and KDDI Corp.
The world’s biggest carmaker owns stock in 123 listed companies across the globe, including itself, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Toyota also had ¥11.4 trillion in cash and equivalents as of the end of September.
Toyota laid out plans this week to sell down its stake in parts supplier Denso, freeing up money that can be used for electrification and diversification. At the same time, regulators are putting pressure on Japanese companies to unwind cross shareholdings and manage their capital more efficiently. Toyota’s sales can be seen as the first step in a broader review of its assets, according to Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Tatsuo Yoshida.
“The trend of selling policy shareholdings and dissolving cross-shareholdings is likely to spread not only to Toyota, Denso, Toyota Industries Corp. and Aisin Corp. but also to other companies within the Toyota group,” Yoshida said.
A spokesperson for Toyota declined to comment.
Toyota amassed stakes in suppliers and affiliates over the years as its business grew. Denso itself was once part of Toyota until it was split off from the carmaker in 1949.
Masahiro Yamamoto, chief officer of the accounting group, said in an online briefing that Toyota is looking at reducing stakes it holds in other affiliates to around 20% for each.
--With assistance from Supriya Singh.
