Toshiba Corp chief executive officer Nobuaki Kurumatani resigned yesterday as a buyout offer from a private equity fund stirs turmoil inside the storied Japanese company, with reports suggesting that two other funds are considering bids.
Kurumatani’s resignation is the latest development in years of upheaval at the firm, which in January won back its spot on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange after restructuring.
The board accepted Kurumatani’s resignation “as he has completed his mission of revitalizing Toshiba,” Osamu Nagayama, head of the firm’s appointment committee, told reporters after the company confirmed the departure.
Photo: AFP
Kurumatani declined to appear before journalists, but a statement from him was read out at the event.
His departure comes as board members raise questions about the buyout offer from CVC Capital Partners Ltd, where Kurumatani formerly headed Japanese operations — although Nagayama has said that conflict of interest allegations had “nothing to do” with the resignation.
The private equity firm is reportedly offering a deal in excess of US$20 billion, but there are reports that some at Toshiba see that sum as too small.
Kuramtani’s departure is likely to be seen as a reflection of internal disagreements over the CVC offer.
The Financial Times reported that another private equity fund, KKR & Co Inc, is planning to offer its own larger buyout proposal.
Bloomberg News reported that a third fund, Canadian Brookfield Asset Management Inc, is also exploring a possible offer.
Toshiba officials did not address the reports at yesterday’s news conference.
Toshiba last week confirmed that it had received the CVC offer, which would take Toshiba private.
Delisting the firm could produce faster decisionmaking by Toshiba’s management, which has over the past few months clashed with shareholders.
It could also allow Toshiba to concentrate resources on renewable energies and other core businesses.
However, any buyout offer is likely to face significant challenges, including securing financing and regulatory approval.
Nagayama said that Toshiba would consider CVC’s offer cautiously, but warned that it “lacks detail as an initial proposal.”
“It’s not something Toshiba has asked for, and it has come suddenly,” he said.
“We will make the best choice for shareholders, our employees, and society” if a formal proposal is made, Kurumatani’s successor, Satoshi Tsunakawa, said.
Kurumatani worked for CVC from 2017 to 2018, and his departure would “remove uncertainty over potential conflicts of interest”, said Justin Tang (鄧文雄), head of Asian research at United First Partners.
It will also “force the board to seek other offers that are in the best interests of shareholders,” he said. “It is a very sticky situation at present.”
CVC reportedly hopes to secure financing assistance for its buyout bid, and Toshiba last week said that the bid was likely to involve “a substantial amount of time and considerable complexity.”
The CVC offer is reportedly about ￥5,000 per share, but Tang said that he believes “a price north of ￥6,000 is necessary to get shareholders over the line.”
Toshiba shares yesterday closed up 5.76 percent at ￥4,860.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS