Toshiba misses deadline for sale of memory chip unit

JAPANESE tech giant Toshiba has missed the deadline to seal a longawaited $19bn (£13.5bn) deal to dump its flagship memory chip business.

Toshiba hoped to complete the sale to shore up its finances by the end of March. But the deal with a consortium led by US private equity firm Bain Capital is yet to be approved by the Chinese competition watchdog, delaying its completion by at least a month.

Some of Toshiba’s activist shareholders have railed against Bain’s controversial swoop, arguing that its bid undervalues the business.

Investors have also insisted that the troubled firm’s finances were sufficiently bolstered by a $5.4bn share issue in November.

Toshiba had to put the unit, which accounts for most of the company’s profit, up for sale after an ill-fated move into nuclear energy.

The Japanese firm is also reportedly considering a stock market float of the unit in case the Bain tie-up falls through. It insisted in a statement yesterday that it would go ahead with the deal as soon as possible.