Success for Toshiba's $15 billion buyout, company to delist from TSE

More than half of Toshiba Corp.'s shareholders participated in a $15 billion acquisition led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners Inc., fulfilling the requirements to push the electronics company private and end its 74-year run as a publicly traded company, Bloomberg reported.

According to Toshiba, whose history dates back to 1875, JIP currently owns 78.65 per cent of all its shares. As soon as a date is finalised, it will announce it on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). The Tokyo-based company's withdrawal would bring to an end a difficult decade at the company, one marred by scandal and devastating losses.

A drawn-out auction process has put the inventor of the first laptop and flash memory in limbo during a year of industry-wide revolution brought on by surging interest in artificial intelligence. As talks to merge with the flash memory division of Western Digital Corp. dragged on, Toshiba's chip subsidiary Kioxia Holdings Corp. fell farther behind market leaders Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc.

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Executives at Toshiba and its lenders have stated that privatisation will enable Toshiba to concentrate on longer-term strategy. The company, whose products include refrigerators, hard disc drives, and nuclear power reactors, has gone through three presidents in as many years. Goro Yanase, the chief operating officer, resigned earlier this year to accept accountability for making false claims for entertainment expenses.

Toshiba, once lauded for its technological advances, paid what was Japan's largest-ever fine for financial statement fraud in 2015. Following a failed venture into the nuclear industry, it was forced to write off $6.3 billion and sell off its prized memory-chip division, which is now known as Kioxia Holdings Corp.

The ailing corporation came under pressure from activists, and in 2021 it announced plans to split into three companies. However, in 2022, that plan was changed to a two-way split. The board started looking for offers to take the company private after the top executive at the time quit to accept responsibility for the issues.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)

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