[ad_1]
TOKYO-
Toshiba
Corp.
TOSYY 2.27%
announced Thursday that it would wind up its nuclear operations in the UK and sell its US operations to natural gas, resulting in a combined loss of close to $ 1 billion.
These measures are intended to solve the problems inherited from the past after the wave of restructuring by Toshiba over the last three years, including the bankruptcy of its former company Westinghouse Electric in the United States.
The UK-based NuGeneration Ltd., known as NuGen, had sought to build what was planned as the largest new nuclear project in Europe in northwestern England. Moorside's project stumbled amid doubts about the economics of nuclear power plants.
Toshiba also announced the launch Friday of a 700 billion yen ($ 6.2 billion) share buyback, previously announced, and its completion within one year. Investors praised the timing of the takeover and pushed Toshiba's shares up 13 percent in Tokyo on Thursday.
King Street Capital Management LP, based in New York, which held 6.5% of the capital on October 12, had appealed to Toshiba in October to bring the purchase to 1.1 billion yen. Non-Japanese investors held approximately 72% of the shares as at March 31st.
Nobuaki Kurumatani, a former banker who took office as Toshiba's chief executive in April, said he might consider raising that amount in the future if the company's cash position improved.
Thursday's restructuring came after Toshiba sold several companies associated with its brand, including personal computers, TVs and medical devices.
In publishing a new business plan, Kurumatani said Toshiba remains competitive in many technologies such as batteries and hard drives for data centers.
It set a modest growth target, saying the company wanted its revenues to exceed ¥ 4 trillion in five years, compared to $ 3.6 trillion expected for the current fiscal year ending in March. He added that the company would not pursue major acquisitions.
Toshiba finalized the sale of its 2,000 billion yen smart chip unit in June to a group led by US-based private equity firm Bain Capital LLC, giving it the necessary leeway to amortize energy investments in difficulty.
Kurumatani said that Toshiba's spending was previously focused on the memory sector and that "we have not adequately invested in activities that will surely generate profits if we invest in it."
Toshiba announced that it would record a loss of 93 billion yen related to the planned sale of its liquefied natural gas business in the United States to the Chinese company ENN Ecological Holdings Co. $ 1 billion, but the company still hopes to record net income of about $ 8 billion this year, thanks to gains from the sale of chips.
Toshiba Chief Financial Officer Masayoshi Hirata said the Chinese company offered by far the best offer for the LNG sector, which involved a 20-year commitment to LNG trading, an area that Toshiba does not consider essential. Hirata said he believes the agreement would likely materialize despite the greater obstacles recently faced by Chinese buyers in the United States.
Write to Kosaku Narioka at [email protected]
Source link
