This is perhaps just correlation rather than causation, but judging by the executives’ language, Dan Loeb’s next battle may not be as complicated as his last Japanese brawl.
According to the WSJ, Masahiko Nagao, a managing director at the embattled Japanese automaker Suzuki, told the press that they “have intended to boost our corporate value, based on our midterm plan” and that they “want to express our thinking through dialogues on many occasions.’’
Dan Loeb, Third Point LLC’s chief badass, had earlier disclosed that he has taken a position in the company, praising its low-cost manufacturing process and saying that he believes it to be undervalued.
What’s interesting here is that Loeb, save for hinting at a possible Suzuki stock buyback from Volkswagen, has yet to make any proposals to the automaker. If they’re execs are already scrambling and talking about increasing corporate value, this could quite possibly be an interesting bout to follow.
Stay tuned.
Photo: Scott.Symonds