Toshiba sells TV business to China's Hisense

TOKYO - Struggling Japanese conglomerate Toshiba said Tuesday it has decided to sell its television business to China's Hisense Group as part of its efforts to restore its balance sheet.

Toshiba agreed with the Chinese group to sell 95 percent in shares of its unit Toshiba Visual Solutions (TVS) for about 12.9 billion yen ($114 million), it said in a statement.

"Toshiba has been considering structural reforms that will ... strengthen Toshiba's financial base," the firm said.

"It has become difficult for Toshiba itself to further invest its management resources and execute measures to strengthen the competitiveness" of the TV business, it said.

Accordingly, it determined that the best way to strengthen the business is "to transfer it to Hisense".

The announcement came days after the Tokyo-based firm said it logged a net loss of $436 million for the fiscal first half, as it moves to complete the multi-billion-dollar sale of its chip business.

After months of wrangling with competing bidders, Toshiba said in September it had formally signed an agreement to sell the chip unit for 2 trillion yen to a consortium led by US investor Bain Capital, which included US tech giants Apple and Dell as well as South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix.

The chip unit brought in around a quarter of Toshiba's total annual revenue and is the crown jewel in a vast range of businesses ranging from home appliances to nuclear reactors.

The deal is seen as crucial to the survival of the cash-strapped company, one of Japan's best-known firms.

Toshiba is on the ropes after the disastrous acquisition of US nuclear energy firm Westinghouse, which racked up billions of dollars in losses before being placed in bankruptcy protection.

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source: news.abs-cbn.com

Toshiba says cooperating with US on 'accounting problem'

TOKYO, Japan - Toshiba's American units are cooperating with US authorities over alleged accounting irregularities, the embattled firm said Friday, a day after its shares tumbled on a report it was under investigation.

The company has been roiled by a profit-padding scandal, in which high-handed bosses for years systematically pushed their subordinates to cover-up weak financial figures.

Toshiba, a pillar of Japan's industrial establishment, is expecting a huge loss of about 710 billion yen ($6.4 billion) for the year to March with sagging global demand also contributing to its financial woes.

"Several of our US subsidiaries have been requested to provide information by the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission, and they are cooperating with the request," Toshiba said in a statement, referring to what it described as an "accounting problem" though it refrained from naming any of the companies.

The statement came after Bloomberg News, quoting unnamed sources, reported on Thursday that the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining if any fraud occurred over a loss booked by Toshiba's US nuclear business unit Westinghouse.

The loss could be up to 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion), the Asahi Shimbun daily said.

On Thursday Toshiba's stock fell nearly eight percent in Tokyo following the probe report, but in early trading Friday the shares were up more than four percent.

Toshiba will hold a news conference later Friday after the market close to announce its mid-term business plan.

In December, Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission said that Toshiba should be slapped with a record 7.37 billion yen fine over the profit-padding scheme that hammered its reputation.

In the wake of the scandal, Toshiba -- a vast conglomerate that makes everything from rice cookers to nuclear plants -- has ushered in thousands of job cuts and plans to sell various business units in a bid to revive itself.

Toshiba said Thursday that it has sold its medical devices unit to camera and office equipment maker Canon for almost $6 billion.

It also announced a basic agreement to sell a majority interest in its home appliance business to China's Midea, though a Toshiba spokeswoman said a price for the deal had yet to be announced.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Toshiba CEO to step down over accounting scandal

TOKYO - Japan's Toshiba Corp. said its chief executive was stepping down on Tuesday after an independent investigation found he had been aware the company had been inflating its profits over a number of years.

CEO and President Hisao Tanaka will be replaced by Chairman Masashi Muromachi effective Wednesday, the company said in a statement, adding it was considering appointing outside directors to over half of its board seats.

Tanaka's predecessors, Vice Chairman Norio Sasaki and adviser Atsutoshi Nishida, will also step down after the third-party report showed they also played a part in the overstatement of profits going back to the 2008 financial year.

The report released on Monday said Toshiba had overstated its operating profit by 151.8 billion yen ($1.22 billion) over several years, roughly triple Toshiba's initial estimate.

The findings are expected to lead to the restatement of earnings, a board overhaul and potentially hefty fines at the computers-to-nuclear conglomerate in Japan's worst corporate scandal since Olympus Corp was found to have covered up $1.7 billion in losses in late 2011.

RISKS TO INVESTOR CONFIDENCE
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said earlier on Tuesday that the accounting irregularities at Toshiba were "very regrettable", coming at a time when Japan is trying to regain global investors' confidence with better corporate governance.

"If (Japan) fails to implement appropriate corporate governance, it could lose the market's trust," Aso told a news conference on Tuesday. "It's very regrettable."

Aso declined to comment when asked if Toshiba would face any kind of financial penalty. Sources have said regulators were beginning their own review of Toshiba's book-keeping, based on Monday's report.

The investigation came just as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has implemented new guidelines to improve the country's corporate governance.

Shares in Toshiba rose 6 percent on Tuesday on relief the report had few nasty surprises. But they are still down around 23 percent since Toshiba first disclosed cases of accounting irregularities in early April.

"Institutional investors and other long-term funds have already unloaded Toshiba shares, so currently the stock price is being driven by short-term investors," said Takatoshi Itoshima, chief portfolio manager at Commons Asset Management.

"The bad news is out. As long as Toshiba won't be delisted, such trade will continue."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Toshiba unveils disease-detecting breathalyzer

TOKYO - Japan's Toshiba on Tuesday unveiled a breathalyzer which it says can detect a wide range of diseases just 30 seconds after users blow into the machine.

The device, about the size of a small dishwasher, has a nozzle in which users blow several times.

It then analyses the puffs for traces of several gases which can signal the presence of several health problems including diabetes, stomach ailments and even the ordinary hangover.

"A breath exhaled into the machine is irradiated with an infrared laser, and then trace gases are detected" the company said in a statement.

The gases include acetaldehyde, methane and acetone, all of which can point to the presence of various health problems.

Toshiba said it would expand the number of gases -- and diseases -- that its machine can detect, with an eye to starting commercial production next year.

The healthcare segment is a key unit for Toshiba, which is best known for its consumer electronics.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com