Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has moved to a 19.93% stake in FleetPartners Group (ASX: FPR), buying up the company's stock at a premium, but says it's not about to launch a takeover bid.
Under Australian corporate law, if an entity moves beyond 19.99% ownership of a listed entity, it must launch a full takeover bid.
Mitsubishi said in a statement released on Thursday that it had increased its stake in the vehicle leasing and fleet management company as of September 17.
In June last year, Mitsubishi Motors acquired 5.01% of FleetPartners' total issued shares. With the aim to continue to strengthen the strategic relationship between the organisations and expand operations in Australia and New Zealand, Mitsubishi Motors has increased its investment to 19.93%. As part of the acquisition of the shares, Mitsubishi Motors represented to shareholders it has no current intention to acquire control or make a takeover offer for FleetPartners.
FleetPartners, in its own statement to the ASX, said Mitsubishi had bought the new shares at $3.10, a significant premium to the company's share price of $2.91, which was up 5.6% on the day. ASX data shows that 31 million FleetPartners shares were traded on Wednesday, compared with the usual volume of about 636,000 shares.
FleetPartners also has a share buyback underway, worth up to $25.3 million over the second half of the year.
FleetPartners operates in sectors including novated leasing, business vehicle leasing, and fleet management.
Tatsuo Nakamura, Executive Vice President of Mitsubishi Motors, said: "Australia and New Zealand are core markets for Mitsubishi Motors, and our strengthened relationship with FleetPartners reflects our continued investment and strategic commitment to these regions. We look forward to continuing to work with FleetPartners to collectively grow our businesses".
Over the past year, FleetPartners shares have traded between $2.38 and $3.37.
Image source: Rivian Automotive
Profit performance moderates
In May, the company released its results for the first half of the year to the end of March, reporting a net profit of $38.9 million, down 7%.
The company's assets under management increased 6% to $2.3 billion, and the company finalised its Accelerate business transformation program during the half.
The company said at the time that as it moves forward and as the benefits of that program were realised, "it expects to achieve continued asset growth, reflective of the combined strength of recent tender wins, and new and existing customer activity".
FleetPartners has not paid a dividend since January 2019.
