Toshiba shares dive as questions swirl over huge losses

TOKYO: Toshiba shares plunged again yesterday as it warned of a US$ 6.2 billion writedown in its US nuclear power business and announced a probe into possible wrongdoing by the unit’s senior executives.

One of Japan’s best-known firms, Toshiba shocked investors Tuesday when it failed to report its results for April-December as scheduled then said it needed more time to sort out the situation at troubled atomic division Westinghouse Electric.

Instead it issued a grim preliminary forecast forecast a net loss of 390 billion yen ( US$ 3.4 billion) in the fiscal year to March, dragged by a huge writedown topping 700 billion yen at Westinghouse.

The revelation prompted Toshiba chairman Shigenori Shiga to quit his post.

It also said lawyers and an independent auditing firm were sifting through details of an acquisition by Westinghouse, after a whistleblower complained executives exerted “inappropriate pressure” over accounting at the US-based company.

The firm’s Tokyo-listed stock dropped more than 13 per cent at one stage before paring losses to sit at 205.9 ( US$ 1.80) by the lunch break, down 10.4 per cent and extending Tuesday’s eight per cent selloff.

The crisis comes less than two years after the conglomerate, which makes everything from trains to memory chips, suffered an embarrassing profit-padding scandal that involved bosses pressuring subordinates to cover up weak earnings.

The company’s stock has lost 60 per cent since that crisis came to light in April 2015.

“There is no room for optimism,” said Toshihiko Matsuno, chief strategist at SMBC Friend Securities.

“The share price is still higher than the low at the time of the accounting scandal when investors were pricing in the possibility of its shares being taken off the exchange,” he told AFP, adding that the firm was likely working to avoid an embarrassing delisting.

“Its corporate governance has been called into question and I cannot rule out the possibility that investors are pricing that scenario in” again. — Reuters