The Toyoda family has felt the pinch of the global automotive crash in the worst possible place: their wallets. Toyota share prices have plummeted by a very substantial 46% in the past nine months, costing the Toyoda family hundreds of millions of dollars. Soon-to-be company president Akio Toyoda’s 4.6 million Toyota shares has dropped $145 million; a fantastic decline, but less than half of his father’s loss. Former company president and honorary chairman Shoichiro Toyoda has lost $304 million during the past nine months – enough money to buy over 10,000 loaded Camrys.
The Toyodas have a great deal of stock in the company Kiichiro Toyoda founded, yet the family only owns 0.8% off all shares. And while the Toyodas have lost quite a bit of stock value, the company scions aren’t likely to sell off their shares. That means the family probably won’t lose much real wealth in the long term, though a potential dividend cut could still cost the Toyoda’s millions. Bloomberg expects Akio and Shoichiro to lose about $20 million in 2009 dividend payments, or enough money to make even the wealthiest automotive scions really, really sad.
[Source: Bloomberg]