Toshiba exits the Japanese stock exchange after 74 years of history, hoping for a revival
Toshiba will be delisted on Wednesday after 74 years on the Tokyo stock exchange, following a decade of upheavals and scandals that brought down one of Japan's biggest brands and triggered a buyout and an uncertain future.
The conglomerate will be bought by a group of investors led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) that also includes financial services firm Orix, utility Chubu Electric Power and chipmaker Rohm. They have no intention of keeping it listed.
The $14 billion acquisition puts Toshiba back in Japanese national hands after long battles with foreign activist investors that have crippled the maker of batteries, chips and nuclear and defense equipment.
While it's unclear what form Toshiba will take under its new owners, Chief Executive Officer Taro Shimada, who will remain in his role after the acquisition, is expected to focus on high-margin digital services.
JIP's support for Shimada had derailed his earlier plan to ally with a state fund. According to some insiders, splitting Toshiba could be a better option.
“Toshiba's difficulties were caused by a combination of poor strategic decisions and bad luck,” said Damian Thong, head of Japan research at Macquarie Capital Securities.
“I hope that through the divestitures, Toshiba's assets and human talents can find a new home in which to unleash their full potential.”
A story with some sensational scandals.
Toshiba's history has been quite complex and eventful. The company was born from the contraction of the name Tokyo Shibaura Denki KK, which resulted from the merger of two previous companies dating back to the late nineteenth century. In the 60s it developed by producing consumer electronics, household appliances, musical productions, heavy metalworking, according to the classic pattern of Japanese conglomerates.
The first problem occurred in the 1980s, when it was caught selling banned technologies to the USSR, which excluded it from the US market from 1990 to 1991. In 2015 there was the accounting scandal, in which it was discovered that the company had hidden losses of 1.2 billions of dollars. In 2017 it risked bankruptcy together with Westinghouse due to losses arising from the construction of the Vogle nuclear power plant.
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The article Toshiba exits the Japanese stock exchange after 74 years of history, hoping for a revival comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/toshiba-esce-dalla-borsa-giapponese-dopo-74-anni-di-storia-sperando-in-un-rilancio/ on Wed, 20 Dec 2023 08:00:58 +0000.