Toyota Motor Corp.'s looming loss isn't just a management challenge for Akio Toyoda, tapped to lead the carmaker his family founded. The global recession has cut the value of Toyota shares he and his father own by ¥42 billion and their dividend income may also fall.
The value of Akio Toyoda's 4.6 million Toyota shares shrank 46 percent in the past nine months to ¥14 billion as of the close of trading Monday, while father Shoichiro Toyoda's 11.2 million shares fell to ¥34.2 billion. The elder Toyoda, Toyota's honorary chairman and former president, is the largest private shareholder, followed by Akio Toyoda, based on filing data.
The decline is an unrealized loss for the wealthy industrial family because neither has sold Toyota shares, according to available filing data. Still, the descendants of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda will take a direct hit should the world's largest carmaker reduce dividend payments, as analysts predict.
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