Toyota to buy back up to 1.89 percent of own shares, worth $3.5 billion

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> will buy back up to 1.89 percent of its issued shares worth up to 360 billion yen ($3.5 billion), with half to be allocated to benefit a charity foundation while half will be canceled, the automaker said on Wednesday.

Toyota will sell 30 million shares to Japan Trustee Services Bank for a token sum of 1 yen per share, with the dividends to be used to fund a new foundation Toyota is establishing.

The remaining 30 million shares will be canceled.

The plan is subject to approval by an annual general shareholders' meeting set to take place in June, the company said.

The shares will be purchased after the shareholders' meeting and no later than March 26, 2015. The shares closed on Tuesday at 5,621 yen.

($1 = 102.3200 Japanese Yen)

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Edmund Klamann)