S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) industrials stock Fleetpartners Group Ltd (ASX: FPR) is off to the races today.
Shares in the vehicle fleet leasing and management company closed yesterday trading for $2.76. In morning trade on Thursday, shares jumped to $3.03 each, up 9.8%. After some likely profit-taking, shares are changing hands for $2.91 apiece in afternoon trade, up 5.4%.
For some context, the ASX 300 is down 0.5% at this same time.
Here's what looks to be spurring investor interest today.
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ASX 300 industrials stock attracting more interest from Mitsubishi
As the Motley Fool reported this morning, Fleetpartners revealed that Mitsubishi Motors Corp (TYO: 7211) has increased its holding in the company to 19.93%.
Mitsubishi shelled out $3.10 per share for its increased holdings. That's more than 12% above Wednesday's closing price for the ASX 300 industrials stock.
Investors will also have taken note that this represents a material increase from Mitsubishi's prior holding of about 5.01% of Fleetpartners stock. The Japanese company acquired that stake in June 2024.
Despite the sizeable increase, the company said that it had no current intention to acquire control of or make a takeover offer for the ASX 300 industrials stock.
The original stake
As mentioned, Mitsubishi acquired its initial 5.01% stake in the ASX 300 industrials stock on 9 June 2024.
At the time, Tatsuo Nakamura, executive vice president of Mitsubishi Motors, said:
Australia is one of our core markets, and we have made this investment to further expand our sales channels and business opportunities in the country. We look forward to working with Fleetpartners to grow our businesses.
Fleetpartners' CEO Damian Berrell also sounded a positive note on Mitsubishi's big share purchase at the time.
"We're a strong supporter of market consolidation and would be open to any form of market consolidation," he said.
"Provided that it's accretive to our investors and the synergies would certainly justify it," he added.
With today's big surge higher for the ASX 300 industrials stock, it would appear that investors believe that Mitsubishi Motors' latest major purchase of Fleetpartners shares will indeed add value to the company.
Fleetpartners shares remain down about 1% since this time last year. But shares have rebounded strongly from the recent 9 April closing lows of $2.40, now up more than 21%.
What does Fleetpartners do?
If you're not familiar with the ASX 300 stock, Fleetpartners provides vehicle leasing, fleet management, heavy commercial vehicles, salary packaging, and novated leasing services.
The company listed on the ASX on 22 April 2015.
