Japan's Toshiba Sold to JIP Consortium... "Delisting Scheduled for December"

On the 21st, "Tender Offer Criteria Established" Announcement
Delisting After 74 Years... "Goal to Relist Within 3-5 Years"

Toshiba, a leading Japanese electronics company that maintained its listed status for 74 years, will be delisted within this year. The Japanese investment fund consortium 'Japan Industrial Partners (JIP)' is expected to focus on increasing corporate value after completing the tender offer (TOB) to acquire Toshiba.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

According to Nihon Keizai Shimbun and others, Toshiba announced on the 21st that the tender offer by the JIP consortium was successful. The subscription rate by shareholders during the tender offer process, which took place from the 8th of last month until the day before, was 78.65%, exceeding the required 66.7% for establishment. The acquisition price per share was 4,620 yen (approximately 41,700 KRW), higher than the closing price that day (4,597 yen).

Under Japanese corporate law, a major shareholder holding 66.7% of shares can purchase the remaining shares at the same price without the consent of other shareholders. The JIP consortium plans to decide on acquiring the remaining shares at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting scheduled for November.

Following this tender offer, Toshiba will be delisted within the year after subsequent procedures such as the shareholders' meeting. Toshiba is a representative company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange since 1949. Nihon Keizai reported, "Toshiba will be delisted in December (after the extraordinary shareholders' meeting), ending its 74-year history of being listed."

Toshiba faced a crisis due to accounting fraud issues in April 2015 and huge losses from its U.S. nuclear power plant subsidiary at the end of 2016, prompting management restructuring efforts. In particular, it accepted the acquisition proposal led by the JIP consortium and proceeded with the tender offer process.

JIP is known to have a plan to increase corporate value after delisting and then relist the company. Toshiba announced it will reorganize its core business around data services and aims to secure 5 trillion yen in sales by 2030, which is 1.5 times the sales in 2022. Jiji Press evaluated, "JIP appears to aim for Toshiba’s relisting within 3 to 5 years, but the path to reconstruction is still unclear."

The funds used by JIP for the Toshiba tender offer are planned to be covered by up to 1.2 trillion yen borrowed from a banking group including Mitsui Sumitomo Bank, as well as money contributed by 20 Japanese companies such as ORIX and Chubu Electric Power.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.