Toshiba intends to list the company’s shares on the stock exchange in the second half of fiscal 2023. A similar step, ie the division into three companies, was announced this week by the American giant General Electric.
Toshiba’s plan envisages the separation of two key business areas: the Energy and Infrastructure Division and the Electronic Equipment Division. Following the separation of these parts, Toshiba will continue to own a 40.6 percent stake in memory chip maker Kioxia and other assets.
Some analysts are worried about the timing of the changes. “It’s a step in the right direction, but it seems slow,” said Atul Goyal of Jefferies Investment Bank. He would prefer a time frame of three to six months. “The year 2023 is far away and we are not sure what will change until then.”
–
Toshiba has faced complex changes in recent years
Toshiba is one of the oldest and largest Japanese companies, engaged in a wide range of activities, from the production of home electronics to equipment for nuclear power plants. However, in recent years, it has faced complex changes as it has come to terms with the consequences of the accounting scandal and the huge losses associated with its US nuclear unit.
In 2015, then-CEO Hisao Tanaka resigned when Toshiba announced that it had overestimated its profits by more than a billion dollars. The company has been falsifying accounting for six years. In 2018, Toshiba sold its crown jewel, a memory chip company, to avoid bankruptcy.
In April of this year, the British investment company CVC Capital Partners offered twenty billion dollars ($ 441.1 billion) for the takeover of Toshiba. One week later, then-CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani resigned in connection with the offer. Toshiba then rejected CVC’s offer, which angered some activist shareholders. In June, Osamu Nagayama, the chairman of the board, was removed under their pressure.
– .
