Western Digital, KKR resubmit bid for Toshiba chip unit

TOKYO: Western Digital Corp and US private equity firm KKR & Co LP have resubmitted an offer for Toshiba Corp’s flash memory chip unit, in an eleventh hour effort to prevent the conglomerate signing a deal with its preferred bidder.

Western Digital, which jointly runs Toshiba’s main semiconductor plant, has been at loggerheads with its Japanese partner over the sale of the world’s No. 2 producer of NAND chips, and is seeking a US court injunction to prevent any deal that does not have its consent.

The resubmission adds to uncertainty about whether Toshiba will sign a pact by today with the firm’s preferred bidder – a group led by Japanese government investors and including Bain Capital that has offered around ¥2 trillion (RM77 billion).

The crisis-wracked Japanese conglomerate is rushing to sell the unit to cover billions of dollars in cost overruns at its bankrupt Westinghouse nuclear unit and had set itself a deadline today to sign what it has called a definitive agreement.

Western Digital will provide debt financing to facilitate a sale as part of the resubmitted bid, the US firm said in a brief statement on Tuesday.

In response to Western Digital’s resubmission, Toshiba released a statement reiterating that it has reviewed all proposals and is currently finalising an agreement with the preferred bidder.– Reuters