GT Capital Holdings has entered into a deal to buy an additional 15-percent stake in Toyota Motor Philippines from banking arm Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. for P4.5 billion, securing majority control of the car firm.
There are still about a dozen days left before 2012 officially becomes history but the country’s leading automotive firm, Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP), is already in a celebratory mood. With December sales yet to be added, the country’s top automotive firm has already surpassed its 2011 overall sales mark and even its all-time tally.
Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) finished the month of October with another record-breaking performance by selling 6,946 units, based on the most recent Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers (Campi) report. It is the highest sales any manufacturer in the country has ever registered in a single month and also the second time this year after July’s 6,258 that the country’s leading automotive firm has reached a milestone sales level.
Local banking giant Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. is selling its 30-percent stake in Toyota Motor Philippines to parent conglomerate GT Capital Holdings for P9 billion.
For almost a quarter of a century, Toyota Motor Philippines has become the de facto gold standard within the Philippine automotive industry.
120 billion—Amount in pesos of the taxes and custom duties TMP remitted to the national and local government since starting operations in 1989.
THE brand name today conjures up images of reliable and sensible sedans, MPVs, pickups, and SUVs. And hybrids. Sporty is one of the last adjectives that one would associate with the Japanese car giant. Yet a long time ago, in a galaxy not far away, Toyota has always had an interesting sports car in its lineup. Sean Connery’s James Bond got infatuated with the exotic 2000GT. The Celica gained legions of fans during its seven generations of existence. And the MR2—a compact sports car that shared the mid-engined, rear-wheel drive layout of all the best exotics, but at the mere gasoline budget of those cars—who else but Toyota competently did that?
It was a drizzling weekend when final preparations were made for Toyota’s most anticipated vehicle launch—the Toyota FT-86—at the Subic International Airport. This 2+2 sports car is said to be the reincarnation of the venerable and legendary drift car Toyota AE-86 from the famous animé series and movie Initial-D.
The government was urged to start laying down critical measures to prepare the local automotive industry for what Toyota Motor Philippines called the “third wave of high motorization in the Asean” by 2015.
First impressions count a lot, especially before you get to test-drive the newest full-model change of a best-seller like the Toyota Camry. The 2012 or seventh generation of Toyota’s flagship sedan was unveiled in Manila last week by Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) with a lot of fanfare and celebration.
We can smell the marketing ploy a mile away. Some car manufacturers tweak a design feature here, add a tiny feature there, and then bang, pow! Major relaunch featuring the all-new so and so. Complete with promo girls, song-and-dance numbers and fireworks. But at the end of the night, when everyone else has been rendered tipsy, and talk is loose, someone asks the forbidden question: “So what’s the big deal about a little change, huh?” At which point the PR handlers would quietly lead the guest to the exit.
Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. is looking to hike its annual vehicle sales to 100,000 units and local production to 50,000 yearly by 2018. TMP president Michinobu Sugata said during the celebration Thursday of the Laguna manufacturing facility’s 500,000-unit production milestone that the company remains true to its commitment to “fuel the age of motorization” in [...]
