Toshiba Ends 74-Year History as Public Company

Jiji Press

15:37 JST, December 20, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Ailing Japanese electronics and machinery giant Toshiba Corp. was delisted from Japan’s stock exchanges on Wednesday, ending its 74-year history as a publicly traded company.

Toshiba will now aim for reconstruction under a new management team including officials from a consortium led by investment firm Japan Industrial Partners Inc. that bought Toshiba. The new management team will seek to relist Toshiba’s stock in about five years.

Toshiba shares closed at ¥4,590 on Tuesday, down ¥5 from the previous day.

Toshiba, which will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding in 2025, has been mired in management turmoil in recent years.

Its brand image was damaged by an accounting scandal in 2015, and the collapse of its U.S. nuclear plant subsidiary dealt a further blow in 2017. It suffered massive losses and fell into negative net worth.

To rebuild its financial base, Toshiba received investment from a foreign activist investment fund, but this led to further turmoil. Toshiba was forced to sell off medical equipment, semiconductor memory and other operations that were believed to have high profitability and growth potential.

The JIP-led consortium launched a tender offer for Toshiba in August this year, and the offer was successfully completed the following month. In November, the procedures necessary to take Toshiba private were approved at an extraordinary meeting of Toshiba shareholders.

Toshiba aims to increase its corporate value by developing the data services business into a revenue pillar, in addition to its mainstay infrastructure business, including nuclear plant operations.