ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Environment
  • Companies
  • Investors
  • Governance
  • Markets
  • Social
  • Regulators
  • Sustainable Finance
Featured Posts
    • Companies
    European office market faces biggest test since financial crisis
    • August 15, 2022
    • Markets
    Uniper drops coal case as tensions rise over treaty on fossil fuel projects
    • August 15, 2022
    • Latest News
    Stock markets subdued after weaker than expected Chinese data
    • August 15, 2022
    • Companies
    Vanguard active funds suffer bloodiest first-half on record
    • August 15, 2022
    • Markets
    Why the Fed might be at ‘neutral’ already on monetary policy
    • August 15, 2022
Featured Categories
Belarussia
View Posts
Companies
View Posts
Energy
View Posts
Environment
View Posts
Food
View Posts
Governance
View Posts
Health
View Posts
Investors
View Posts
Latest News
View Posts
Markets
View Posts
Potash
View Posts
Regulators
View Posts
Russsia
View Posts
Social
View Posts
Supply Chain
View Posts
Sustainable Finance
View Posts
Technology
View Posts
Uncategorized
View Posts
ESG Telegraph ESG Telegraph
7K
9K
4K
1K
ESG Telegraph ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Environment
  • Companies
  • Investors
  • Governance
  • Markets
  • Social
  • Regulators
  • Sustainable Finance
  • Latest News

Toshiba three-way split in doubt as investors push for private equity talks

  • February 4, 2022
  • Staff
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

Toshiba is reconsidering a plan to split itself into three companies, as investors continue to push the Japanese industrial conglomerate towards resuming buyout talks with private equity firms.

According to two people briefed on the matter, Toshiba is revising a contentious restructuring plan that it announced in November following a strategic review forced on the company after a series of clashes with investors.

Several of Toshiba’s largest investors — a register packed with hedge funds and activists — have protested strongly against the proposed three-way split.

Its second-biggest shareholder, the Singapore-based fund 3D Investment Partners, called on Toshiba in January to convene an extraordinary meeting to vote on the split and revive talks with potential buyers to take the entire conglomerate private. That request, according to people close to the matter, has not been withdrawn.

Toshiba’s revised plan, which will be outlined to investors next week, will involve the sale of Toshiba’s 60 per cent stake in an air conditioning joint venture to its US partner in that business, Carrier Global. The sale, according to a Friday report in the Nikkei, would value Toshiba’s stake at roughly ¥100bn ($867mn).

Toshiba then envisages a two-way split whereby its devices businesses are spun off and listed separately as one company, leaving its infrastructure and remaining interests in semiconductors as the second company.

A two-way split would be considerably simpler than a three-way separation, with investors suggesting that the revision may have been aimed at sparing Toshiba a complex voting process where management’s plans might, once again, be blocked by shareholders.

Late in 2021, shareholders who collectively held more than 30 per cent of Toshiba’s stock told the Financial Times that they would vote against the three-way split if given the option.

“It is true that we are considering improving our restructuring scheme and reviewing our portfolio as options,” said Toshiba, adding that an announcement would be made on Monday when chief executive Satoshi Tsunakawa explains the conglomerate’s management strategies to investors.

Toshiba’s restructuring plan emerged from the chaos that followed a preliminary approach to Toshiba’s management last year from the private equity group CVC proposing talks on taking the troubled conglomerate private. After the resignation of Toshiba’s then chief executive in April and a bruising annual meeting in June, the company convened a strategic review committee to examine its options.

The review concluded that, after years of accounting scandal, a brush with bankruptcy and the sale of its prized memory chip business, Toshiba’s best option was to split itself into an electronic devices business, an infrastructure group and a holding company for its remaining interests in semiconductors.

But large investors accused the review committee of deliberately downplaying the viability of a private equity buyout of the entire company, with a significant number warning that they would once again vote against management at the 2022 AGM in protest. Shareholders told the FT in December they believed that at least two buyers had discussed valuations for a take-private option that were at least 25 per cent higher than Toshiba’s share price at that time.

Although the strategic review committee concluded that a take-private deal was not viable, private equity firms that had previously engaged with Toshiba said they had since been contacted by bankers for informal talks on other options. These would include the sale of individual assets from Toshiba’s sprawling portfolio of businesses.

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
You May Also Like
Read More
  • Latest News

Stock markets subdued after weaker than expected Chinese data

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Latest News

Rio Tinto rebuffed in plan to take control of Mongolia copper project

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Latest News

At 75, India is finally ready to join the global party

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Latest News

China cuts lending rate as economic data disappoint and Covid cases rise

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Latest News

Engagement with Afghanistan will promote broader US strategic goals

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Latest News

Brexit intensifies labour shortages as companies struggle to hire

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Latest News

A €1 dream scheme sparks a wider homebuying trend in Sicily

  • Staff
  • August 15, 2022
Read More
  • Latest News

The family holiday just got political

  • Staff
  • August 14, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured Posts
  • 1
    European office market faces biggest test since financial crisis
    • August 15, 2022
  • 2
    Uniper drops coal case as tensions rise over treaty on fossil fuel projects
    • August 15, 2022
  • 3
    Stock markets subdued after weaker than expected Chinese data
    • August 15, 2022
  • 4
    Vanguard active funds suffer bloodiest first-half on record
    • August 15, 2022
  • 5
    Why the Fed might be at ‘neutral’ already on monetary policy
    • August 15, 2022
Recent Posts
  • Rio Tinto rebuffed in plan to take control of Mongolia copper project
    • August 15, 2022
  • Digital advertising: Apple takes bigger bite of new business
    • August 15, 2022
  • At 75, India is finally ready to join the global party
    • August 15, 2022

Sign Up for Our Newsletters

Subscribe now to our newsletter

ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Guest Post
  • Contact

Input your search keywords and press Enter.