Japanese conglomerate Toshiba on Tuesday revised down its annual forecasts as it said it was still weighing a purchase proposal that would take it private after months of wrangling. In April last year, the firm said it was suspending a plan to split in two after a shareholder vote against the idea and would weigh going private. Last week, Toshiba confirmed that it had received a "proposal" from a consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), but without further details. On Tuesday, chief financial officer Masayoshi Hirata reiterated "right now, the special committee is closely studying the content of the proposal". But he declined to give a timeframe for evaluating the offer, which the Nikkei business daily said was around 2 trillion yen (€14 billion). Mega banks Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Mizuho Bank will each offer loans worth 500 billion yen, while companies including financial services firm Orix, electronic parts maker Rohm and power utility Chubu Electric would offer a total of around one trillion yen, it said. For the October-December period, Toshiba posted a net loss of 16.7 billion yen, against a 55.1 billion yen net profit a year earlier. Operating profit...
↧