Phoenix Capital Co, a Japanese investment fund set to become Mitsubishi Motors Corp's largest shareholder, will invest in the automaker for three to five years, said Phoenix chief executive officer Yasushi Ando in an interview on Japan's NHK Television.
"We want to invest with a long-term view," said Ando in the interview. "I am sure Mitsubishi Motors can become profitable as long as it reduces costs and regains trust."
Mitsubishi Motors may need a ?546 billion (US$5.04 billion) bailout after sales in Japan and the US plunged following the recall of more than 800,000 cars, trucks and buses this year.
The automaker's ex-president and other former executives have been arrested on charges they didn't report vehicle faults that may be linked to two fatal truck accidents.
The Tokyo-based automaker said it will speed up a plan to reduce costs, which includes cutting 22 percent of its workforce.
The company said in June it aims to cut an extra ?34.4 billion in costs this year and a similar amount next year as it trims salaries by 5 percent and cancels bonuses.
"Our fund just doesn't wait for companies' share prices to rise and be passive," Ando said. "Our domestic and foreign investors want to increase the value of the companies" that we invest in, he said.
Mitsubishi Motors will sell ?100 billion of shares to Phoenix on July 15, giving the Tokyo-based investment fund more than a 40 percent controlling stake in the carmaker.
Ando, 45, a former Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd executive, has said Phoenix has committed ?20 billion of its own money and ?50 billion from unidentified foreign investors. Ando was appointed to the board of Mitsubishi Motors on June 29, along with six other new board appointments.
Mitsubishi Motors shareholders approved a plan to sell the automaker's shares for ?100 each to Phoenix, ?69 lower than the ?169 closing price in Tokyo on Friday.
The company will also receive funds from Mitsubishi Group Companies, JP Morgan & Chase Co, and Taiwan's China Motor Corp (
Mitsubishi Motors has too many auto bodies and parts that don't reflect customers' preferences, Ando said. Mitsubishi Motors executive have said they plan to reduce the number of models from 33 and stop making Diamante luxury sedans.
"Mitsubishi Motors traditionally has talented engineers but they made too many models, which increased costs," said Ando in the TV interview. "When there are too many auto bodies and parts, it takes more time for quality checks. We will cut the number of parts and increase the time spent for quality checks."
Mitsubishi Motors management went back 11 years to 1993 and found there were 26 cases of faults that required recalls, said Mitsubishi Motors Vice Chairman Koji Furukawa.
The automaker has since reported 20 of those to the government and will file the final six to Japan's transport ministry this week, Furukawa said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last