(Copyright: Fortune)
The formerly floundering OEM has experienced an upturn in its fortunes, making it back into the black and avoiding being delisted from Tokyo’s Stock Exchange.
As ABS-CBN reports, Toshiba “bounced back into black after a disastrous year”, and a result will avoid the delisting it had feared.
“We were able to exit from a critical situation by eliminating excessive debt at the end of March,” Toshiba’s new Chief Executive Nobuaki Kurumatani stated during a news conference. “I personally regard it as the starting line for us… for transforming into an excellent company that can survive competition with global excellent companies,” he said.
Earlier this month, Toshiba reported net sales of ¥513.3 billion ($4.68 billion/€3.90 billion), an increase of ¥15.7 billion ($143.3 million/€119.5 million) on the FY2016 figure, and also recorded a rise in operating and ordinary income.
These positive financial results have given the OEM a much-needed boost after a year in which Toshiba found itself reeling, both from the bankruptcy of its US nuclear energy unit, Westinghouse, and revelations that its top brass had been conspiring to cover up poor financial results since 2008.
Toshiba has also endured a well-publicised battle to sell its “prized chip business” to a Bain Group-led consortium, a move which the company had felt necessary in order to avoid being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The OEM has said that it is currently waiting for Chinese antitrust authorities “to approve the key sale” and “denied speculation that it was considering reversing course in the deal”.
Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo, has “warned that the sale of the chip business would be crucial.”
“We are paying close attention to the fate of its memory chip business. The cancellation of the deal will change the company’s strategy significantly,” Yasuda stated. “Toshiba needs to create a fresh source of profit, but it is likely to take two to three years to find and foster it.”
