Toshiba Corp’s memorychip business is attracting more potential bidders, including Japanese government-backed entities, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) is considering a joint offer with US financial bidders, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.
The electronics conglomerate is seeking a sale of the prized unit to make up for a multibillion-dollar writedown in its nuclear operations.
The semiconductor business is Toshiba’s crown jewel and makes the memorychips that go into personal computers, smartphones and data centers. It accounted for about 25 percent of Toshiba’s ¥5.67 trillion (US$50 billion) revenue in the latest fiscal year.
A Toshiba executive late on Thursday said he would welcome a bid from Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ).
INCJ and DBJ are considering a joint bid to take more than a 30 percent stake, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported, but Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga immediately poured cold water on the speculations, telling reporters in Tokyo that Japan is not considering the use of public funds for Toshiba.
Kaori Hiraki, a spokeswoman for Toshiba, declined to comment on the progress of the chip unit sale and possible bidders.
A DBJ representative declined to comment.
The number of interested parties, which already include chip makers and investments funds, might increase beyond the current 10 and the company expects final bids by March 29, the executive said.
Western Digital Corp, SK Hynix Inc, Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), Micron Technology Inc and Kingston Technology Co are among those interested, one of the people said.
The bids could range from ¥700 billion to ¥1.8 trillion, one of the persons said.
Toshiba, which aims to complete the sale of the memorychip business by March next year, is seeking bids that value the entire business at ¥1.5 trillion.
Toshiba is struggling to regain its footing after disclosing an estimated loss of ¥712.5 billion in Westinghouse Electric.
The Tokyo-based company has had to delay its earnings announcement twice and has also floated the possibility of selling off the nuclear operations.
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