LANDIS+GYR’S SWISS LISTING BY END-SEPT?
Sale plan for energy metering unit to make up for Westinghouse loss
TOSHIBA Corp is considering an initial public offering (IPO) in Switzerland for energy metering company Landis+Gyr AG by the end of September, raising a much-needed cash to bankroll its turnaround.
Landis+Gyr, which makes gear to track household power consumption, is one of several assets Toshiba has put up for sale as it tries to make up for multi-billion dollar losses at its Westinghouse nuclear energy unit. The company selected a Japanese-led group last month as preferred bidders for its prized memory chip business.
An IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange was one of several options on the table and a sale of the business remained an alternative, said the Japanese company in a stock exchange filing. Toshiba was said to have courted acquisition bids for the Swiss subsidiary, which had been expected to fetch about US$2 billion (RM8.6 billion).
CVC Capital Partners and Hitachi Ltd had made a joint offer to buy Landis+Gyr from Toshiba and Innovation Network Corp of Japan, according to a source.
“No decisions have been made with regard to either the IPO or the dual-track potential trade sale,” said Landis+Gyr chief executive officer Richard Mora.
Toshiba is selling assets to contend with the bankruptcy of its Westinghouse nuclear business, which may result in a loss of as much as 1.01 trillion yen (RM39.56 billion) for the year that ended in March. Toshiba, slated for demotion to the second board of the Tokyo stock exchange, now has until the end of March next year to shore up its balance sheet or face delisting.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix Inc had proposed that its financing for a Japan government-led group bidding for Toshiba’s chip unit be done through convertible bonds, said two sources, potentially allowing it to have an equity interest in the world’s No. 2 NAND chip maker.
Such an arrangement would likely hurt the consortium’s efforts to clinch a deal, despite being named the preferred bidder last month with an offer of around two trillion yen. Japan’s government is keen to keep the chip business under domestic control and has been wary of allowing foreign firms to access Toshiba’s memory technology.
SK Hynix planned to buy convertible debt in a special purpose company being created by Bain Capital for the Toshiba acquisition, said one of the sources, adding that terms were still being negotiated. Agencies