Electronics giant Toshiba leaving stock market after 74 years

Troubled electronics and energy giant Toshiba will leave the stock market after 74 years to become to a private company.

– Key details to note

One of Japan’s oldest and biggest firms, Toshiba announced that a consortium led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) has purchased 78.65% of its shares.

The deal is worth 2 trillion Japanese ($14 billion), and still needs shareholder approval. Toshiba’s shares were up 0.2% at 4,604 yen (£25) on Thursday in Tokyo.

Toshiba will switch to its new parent company on September 27, and will then delist from the Tokyo Stock Exchange within about a month.

“Toshiba Group will now take a major step toward a new future with a new shareholder,” said its chief executive, Taro Shimada.

– Major scandal

Toshiba started in 1875 as a maker of telegraph equipment. It listed on the stock exchange in May 1949 after World War Two (WW2).

Its products range from home electronics, cookers, to nuclear power stations. The company was once a symbol of Japan’s technological prowess.

The company was involved in a major accounting scandal that surfaced in 2015.

Toshiba admitted it overstated its profits by more than a $1 billion over six years and paid a $47 million fine. Two years later, it revealed major losses at its US nuclear power business. To avoid bankruptcy, it sold its memory chip business in 2018.

Since then, Toshiba received and rejected several takeover offers, including one from UK private equity group CVC Capital Partners in 2021.

In the same year, the company was found to have colluded with the Japanese government to suppress the interests of foreign investors.