Elliott reiterates call against Toyota Industries tender offer, shares hit record

TOKYO, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Elliott Investment Management on Friday said it will not tender its Toyota Industries shares into an extended tender offer at current terms and strongly encouraged other shareholders to follow suit.

Elliott also urged other shareholders to withdraw any shares that have already been tendered.

Elliott has been the most vocal opponent of a bid by a group of Toyota Motor companies to take private the forklift maker, arguing its offer price was too low and harmed the interests of minority shareholders.

The Toyota consortium first offered 16,300 yen per share before raising its bid to 18,800 in January while launching its tender offer, which was due to close on Thursday.

As of two and a half hours before the deadline – the close of the day’s trading on Thursday – the equivalent of 33.1% of the shares had been tendered.

For the bid to be successful, 42.01% of shareholders classified as minority owners need to accept the offer, a figure which excludes Toyota Motor’s 24.66% stake.

Toyota Industries shares jumped after the tender offer period extension was disclosed on Thursday and on Friday morning, they were trading around a record high of 20,355 yen per share.

(Reporting by Mariko Katsumura and Anton Bridge; Editing by Chris Reese and Thomas Derpinghaus)