MITSUBISHI Motors Corporation has bought a 5 per cent stake of Australian fleet leasing company Fleet Partners Group.

Fleet Partners provides comprehensive fleet management services, mainly to corporate customers in Australia and New Zealand.

Mitsubishi Motors’ executive vice president Tatsuo Nakamura said: “Australia is one of our core markets, and we have made this investment with the aim to further expand our sales channels and business opportunities in the country. 

“We look forward to working with Fleet Partners to grow our businesses.”

Fleet Partners has previously indicated – in May and November 2023 – that it had been approached by a “strategic” company (unnamed) to buy a substantial slice of its shares.

Mitsubishi then announced on June 19 this year that it was the strategic company and had bought 5.01 per cent of the ASX-listed company with an on-market purchase of 11.93 million shares in Fleet Partners. The purchase was made daily in 68 separate transactions.

The move comes as Fleet Partners continues on a buyback program started in the 2021 financial year.It said that it had returned a total of $196 million to shareholders and cancelled 81 million representing a 26 per cent reduction in share capital.

It has allocated up to $27 million in the second half of the year reflecting 65 per cent of the first half’s net profit after tax of $41.8 million.