Toshiba considered accepting “selling itself” for 20 billion USD

Toshiba Corp. Corporation On April 7, Japan said it was considering a proposal to buy back the company from the equity investment fund CVC Capital Partners, which valued Toshiba at $ 20 billion.

This information pushed the price of Toshiba shares up 18% during the session on April 7, to 4,530 yen ($ 41.26) – the highest level since December 2016. At this price point, Toshiba has a market capitalization of nearly $ 19 billion. According to sources from Nikkei Asia, CVC has offered to buy the Japanese company at a price 30% higher than the market capitalization. Thus, if the deal is made with CVC, Toshiba will be valued at more than 20 billion USD.

According to Dealogic, this will be one of the largest acquisitions in Asian history, surpassing Toshiba’s acquisition of memory chips from Bain Capital in 2018.

However, for a company related to infrastructure in Japan like Toshiba, the acquisition of this company needs to be approved by the government. Toshiba currently provides a variety of infrastructure services, including maintenance of nuclear plants in Japan.

“This factor makes the acquisition of Toshiba lack of certainty“, said Fumio Matsumoto, chief strategy officer at Okasan Securities.”However, if Toshiba’s shareholder structure is simplified, it is possible to score points plus managers, especially after recent disputes between foreign shareholders and the company’s board of directors.“.

When asked about matters related to Toshiba, Japanese government spokesman Katsunobu Kato stressed that it was important to maintain the company’s stable operations.

At a special meeting last month, Toshiba shareholders approved Effissimo Capital Management’s proposal. to designate the investigation of whether voting at last year’s general meeting of the company was conducted fairly or not.

Since Toshiba raised billions of dollars in investment in 2017, the role of foreign shareholders in the company has grown. The current CEO (CEO) of Toshiba, Mr. Nobuaki Kurumatani, used to be the president of the Japanese branch of CVC.

The Japanese group started to slide after a shocking accounting scandal in 2015. Since then, Toshiba has sold a controlling stake in the memory chip segment, and stopped working in the medical and consumer electronics segments. appliances and appliances to focus on industrial sectors such as energy and infrastructure.