Toyota Acquires Daihatsu as a whole, denies Suzuki tie-ups!

Kuala Lumpur: Toyota is all geared up to expand its model line-up in the small cars segment and it appears that the Japanese carmaker is not going alone on this journey. Toyota has officially confirmed that it is completely taking over its long time companion Daihatsu. Earlier it was quite speculated that Toyota will takeover Suzuki, however now it is clear that Toyota will own the 100% stakes of Daihatsu at about $3 billion. The relation between Toyota and Daihatsu dates back to 1998, Toyota earlier acquired a controlling interest of 51% from the Japan’s longest-surviving carmaker. But now it has raised the stakes to complete 100 percent along with a unique reciprocal share-swap agreement that will allow the shareholders of Daihatsu to hold 0.27 shares in the larger company.

The mergers, acquisitions and collaborations is not a new concept in the auto industry. The most recent one in Malaysia is the Proton taking over Suzuki in the local market. In June last year, Proton signed a legal document (MOU) with the Japanese automaker, Suzuki Motor Corporation to overcome the challenges faced by Suzuki in the local market. This was mainly to boost the compact cars sales of Suzuki in Malaysia. Following which, Proton became the sole manufacturer on the Suzuki platform in Malaysia and Suzuki's job became to cease the sales of CKD (Completely Knocked Down) vehicles. It is also confirmed now that Suzuki outlets will be transformed into the Proton Edar outlets and Proton's dealership and vendors network will help Suzuki to build a strong market in Malaysia.

Thus it is quite evident that such collaborations and acquisitions are mutually beneficial to both the companies. Because the expertise of one in manufacturing benefits the expertise of another in market and brand value.

Similar is the case of Toyota Daihatsu Acquisition, as part of the new arrangement, Daihatsu division will take the lead in developing new small cars, that will benefit itself and the parent company. In turn, Toyota will be sharing key technologies with Daihatsu including the hybrid powertrains, autonomous driving technology and many more. Therefore we can see a lot of Toyotas and Scions that will be developed and built by Daihatsu in the near future.

Toyota being a munificent buyer has also assured that the Daihatsu brand will be given equal status to the Toyota and Lexus brands. Toyota will learn from Daihatsu’s expertise in the varied domains of packaging, efficiency and miniaturisation. The most interesting thing during the whole acquisition was Toyota President Akio Toyoda saying that Daihatsu for Toyota is like how Mini is to BMW.

Daihatsu is not a well known brand in Malaysia, as the company only sells commercial vehicles here, earlier it used to sell small passenger cars like the Charade hatchback and Feroza jeep, but the sales halted after the inception of Perodua in mid nineties. However, the history of Daihatsu traces back to 1907 in Osaka, Japan and now it will be wholly controlled by a fellow Japanese.

Also Read: GIIAS 2015: Daihatsu FT Concept revealed along FX Concept