Elliott Investment Management has increased its stake in Toyota Industries again as the activist investor ramps up efforts to block the Toyota group¡¯s bid to take the company private.

The U.S. fund now owns around 7.1% of Toyota Industries, according to a filing on Thursday. Since revealing a 5% stake in November, Elliott has increased its shareholding twice as it rallies investors to push for a better deal.

The latest move, disclosed one week before the tender offer closes, may add to the challenges the Toyota group faces in getting a potential squeeze-out over the line. While Elliott¡¯s campaign has already seen Toyota group sweeten its offer to ?18,800 ¡ª valuing Toyota Industries at ?6.1 trillion ($39 billion) ¡ª it¡¯s still unclear how many of its fellow minority shareholders will join them in opposing a deal that¡¯s become a high-profile test of Japanese corporate governance reforms.

Toyota Industries shares closed at ?19,255 on Thursday, and have consistently traded above the group¡¯s offer price.

Elliott has previously suggested a standalone plan in which Toyota Industries could achieve a valuation of more than ?40,000 per share by 2028 by unwinding cross-shareholdings, consolidating, improving capital allocation and implementing governance reforms.

The Toyota group¡¯s privatization bid is set to cost it ?5.4 trillion, which includes ?4.3 trillion for the Toyota Industries buyout, and needs two-thirds of voting shares for the tender to succeed. So far, owners of 4.1% of Toyota Industries stock have expressed their intent to tender shares at the below-market offer.

Should the proposal pass, the company would fall under the control of an unlisted real estate firm called Toyota Fudosan. The deal would rank among Japan¡¯s biggest corporate buyouts on record and strengthen the founding family¡¯s grip over the country¡¯s largest business group.

That entanglement underpins ongoing governance flaws despite improved disclosures on financial model assumptions, the Asia Corporate Governance Association said in an open letter published Thursday.

Toyota¡¯s treatment of group companies as independent minority shareholders also effectively reduces the true threshold for a potential squeeze-out, undermining Japanese guidelines and conduct code protections, it said.

The take-private bid ¡°continues to lack meaningful transparency around expected synergies or underlying value creation mathematics,¡± the ACGA said. ¡°Rather, opaque decision-making and the absence of forward-looking disclosures will concentrate all power within an unlisted parent that escapes public scrutiny and accountability.¡±