Toyo dropping '& Rubber' from corporate name

The change, which will be presented at a shareholders' meeting on 29 March, is slated to take effect 1 Jan 2019. The company did not, at this time, reveal a new logo.

Toyo said the change will help "further accelerate the increase in corporate value by expanding the global business and strengthening the brand business…."

The company, which moved to new headquarters in Hyogo last May, disclosed in August last year that it was divesting major portions of its chemical industrial products business unit to fellow Japanese companies Nitta Corp. and Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd.

The businesses being divested represent about $235 million in annual sales, according to Toyo's fiscal 2017 results.

Toyo's seismic isolation rubber business — which was involved in a series of fraudulent business transactions over the past several years that resulted in tens of millions of dollars in losses for Toyo — was not part of that sale.