Toshiba Corp is considering a buyout offer from a British private equity fund, it said yesterday, with reports suggesting the deal could be worth about US$20 billion.
Trading of Toshiba shares was halted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at the open, after the Japanese company confirmed the offer in a statement.
Toshiba said that it “received an initial proposal yesterday” by CVC Capital Partners for a buyout.
Photo: Bloomberg
“We will request detailed information and carefully discuss” the offer, the firm added.
The Nikkei Shimbun said that CVC was considering a 30 percent premium over the Japanese industrial group’s current share price, valuing the deal at nearly ¥2.3 trillion (US$20.9 billion) based on Tuesday’s close.
It said that CVC would consider recruiting other investors to participate in the buyout.
CVC declined to comment on the matter.
The proposal would take Toshiba private, with delisting intended to produce faster decisionmaking by Toshiba’s management, which has clashed with shareholders recently, reports said.
The move, if successful, would allow the firm to concentrate resources on renewable energies and other core businesses, they said.
The two firms are not strangers — Toshiba CEO and president Nobuaki Kurumatani was head of CVC’s Japanese operations from 2017 to 2018, before he took the top job at the conglomerate.
Moreover, a senior executive at CVC Japan is currently an outside director on Toshiba’s board.
Kurumatani told reporters that “we received the proposal, but we’ll discuss it in a board meeting.”
Reports suggested the discussions were to begin yesterday, though Toshiba did not immediately specify.
Toshiba has been hit by false accounting scandals and huge losses linked to its US nuclear unit.
It was forced to sell its profit-making chip business to make up for huge losses.
Following painful restructuring, its earnings rebounded and the company in January returned to the prestigious first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Justin Tang (鄧文雄), head of Asian research at United First Partners, said that CVC’s representation on Toshiba’s board meant the fund was already “familiar with Toshiba’s assets as well as its inner workings.”
“Given the turbulence in Toshiba, the favorable interest-rate environment and supportive investors, the situation is right up CVC’s alley with their expertise in restructuring and turnarounds,” he said.
“They will, however, have their work cut out for them in regards to regulatory approvals,” Tang said.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato stressed the importance of due diligence given Toshiba’s large presence in Japan.
“Regarding companies that are important to our country’s society and economy, we think it’s crucial they can build and maintain a management system that allows them to continue stable operations,” he said.
The news sent Toshiba shares soaring yesterday and they finished up 18.3 percent at ¥4,530.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last