Leaving Tokyo Stock Exchange as of the 20th
Stock price 4590 yen the day before delisting
New owner "Aiming for relisting in 5 years"
Japan's leading electronics company Toshiba, with a history of 150 years, was delisted on the 20th. Due to management difficulties caused by an accounting scandal and massive losses from its US nuclear power subsidiary, it was sold to a private equity fund, ending its 74-year history of being publicly listed.
According to major foreign media, Toshiba, a representative Japanese conglomerate, was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on that day. On the last trading day before becoming a private company, Toshiba's stock price closed at 4,590 yen, down 0.1% from the previous session. Toshiba stated in a press release, "We will take a big step toward a new future with new shareholders."
Toshiba is preparing for a fresh start at the level of corporate reconstruction under a new governance structure. Earlier in September, the new owner, Japanese private equity fund Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), acquired 78.65% of Toshiba's shares. Having met the tender offer criteria, JIP can forcibly acquire the remaining Toshiba shares.
JIP announced that it is considering raising Toshiba's corporate value and relisting the company after delisting, but industry insiders believe that it will be difficult to recover its previous valuation as the company is likely to focus on short-term performance-oriented businesses after relisting.
JIP is also expected to carry out workforce and business restructuring, as well as asset sales at Toshiba. JIP has set the relisting timeline for five years later. The amount JIP invested in acquiring Toshiba is about 2 trillion yen (approximately 180 trillion won), and the 1.4 trillion yen borrowed from banks must be repaid by Toshiba.
Toshiba, a representative Japanese company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for 74 years since 1949, was the world's first to produce laptops and semiconductor NAND flash memory.
However, amid shrinking business due to competition from latecomers such as South Korea, Toshiba faced a crisis following accounting fraud in 2015 and huge losses from its US nuclear power plant subsidiary in 2017, leading to severe management difficulties. In November last year, it partnered with JIP, which proposed acquisition, and proceeded with a public tender offer.
During the management crisis, Toshiba sold its semiconductor memory division and currently only retains businesses related to infrastructure such as water and sewage and power plants, as well as power semiconductors used for electric vehicles and power control.
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