People arrive to attend Toyota Motor’s annual shareholder meeting in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture on June 14, 2023. Toyota is under pressure from large institutional investors to force chairman Akio Toyoda to step down. because of indifference to electric cars.
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Toyota shares hit a 16-month high on Wednesday after shareholders voted to retain Akio Toyoda as chairman in a broad endorsement of the company’s board and innovation strategy.
Shareholders also rejected proposals to reveal more about the Japanese automaker’s climate lobbying, and voted in favor of all 10 proposed board members. presented at the company’s annual meeting in Toyota City.
Shares of Toyota rose about 4.3% at 1 p.m. local time to 2,276 Japanese yen per share – the highest level since February 2022. They also outperformed both the Topix and the benchmark indexes. Nikkei in Tokyo, both were up about 1% on Wednesday afternoon.
A handful of institutional investors have opposed the re-appointment of Toyoda – the grandson of the founder of Toyota Motors – citing the company’s strategy of focusing on multiple fronts across hybrid, gasoline and electric vehicles. affect their competitiveness.
Unprecedented challenges for Toyota shareholders this year come as Japanese companies are under increasing pressure to better engage shareholders in improving capital efficiency and overall profitability.
Ahead of the meeting, the world’s largest automaker said on Tuesday that will introduce a full line of “next generation” battery electric vehicles from 2026. These will be developed and manufactured by a new EV unit called BEV Factory, set up in May.
Toyota aims to reach sales of 1.5 million all-electric vehicles per year by 2026 and to sell 3.5 million all-electric vehicles per year by 2030.
