Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui", Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Tatsuo Yasunaga) will invest in Inversiones Mitta SpA ("Mitta", Representative: Ignacio Correa). Mitta is the parent company of Autorentas del Pacifico SpA, Chile's leading automobile operating lease and rental car company. Mitsui has signed share purchase agreement and will acquire 49% of shares in Mitta after acquiring related approvals from Chilean authorities.

Since 1960, Mitsui has been building a strong automobile value chain in Latin America, operating automobile distributors, dealerships, and automobile financing business. In addition to these supply-side operations, Mitsui will use this equity participation in Mitta to expand into demand-side business areas that will bring it closer to consumers, and to further strengthen its existing automobile value chain.

Mitta, owning approx. 16,500 vehicles in total, has a large share of the automobile operating lease business (B to B) which services various industries such as the mining and energy sectors in Chile, and also has a long-established locally-based rental car business (B to C). Mitsui will build on these foundations to expand Mitta's business operations into other countries, especially Latin American markets where Mitsui has expertise, such as Peru and Colombia. Capturing more of these growing markets and increasing the presence, Mitsui will aim to contribute to increasing prosperity and an enhanced quality of life for all stakeholders, such as the automobile industry, other related industries, and the people of Latin America.

Mitsui selected "Mobility" as one of the key growth areas to focus on, and it is promoting the expansion of automotive value chains, from automotive materials through to mobility and transportation services. As in developed countries, the shift from ownership to usage is also expected to accelerate in Latin American countries. Based on Mitta's existing real assets, such as vehicles and sales and service bases, Mitsui envisions playing the role of driving business model transformation which suits the changing needs of society, including sharing economy, the IoT, and electric vehicles. Mitsui sees this project as an opportunity to create a new platform that will generate new business models.

Profile of Mitta