Toshiba wins shareholder support for JIP's $14 bln takeover offer (updated)

Orix

21/09/2023 01:15

(Adds CEO comment, context)
    By Makiko Yamazaki
       TOKYO, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A consortium led by private
equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) gained 78.65% of
Toshiba  6502.T  through a tender offer, Toshiba said, coming a
step closer to completing a $14 billion deal to take the company
private.
    Ownership of more than a two-third majority would be enough
for the JIP group to squeeze out remaining shareholders. Toshiba
is now set to be delisted as early as December, ending its
74-year history as a listed firm.
    The deal puts the electronics-to-power stations maker in
domestic hands after years of battles with overseas activist
shareholders.
    JIP is joined by some 20 Japanese companies, including
financial services firm Orix  8591.T  and chipmaker Rohm
 6963.T .
    Toshiba in March accepted JIP's buyout offer valuing the
industrial conglomerate at 2 trillion yen ($13.5 billion), with
no prospects of a higher offer or competing bid, even though the
4,620 yen per share offer price was considered by some as
unsatisfactory.
    "We are deeply grateful to many of our shareholders for
being understanding of the company's position," Toshiba Chief
Executive Taro Shimada said in a statement on Thursday. Toshiba
"will now take a major step toward a new future with a new
shareholder".
    Since 2015, Toshiba has been battered by accounting
scandals, suffered heavy loss and came close to being delisted.
It has also been engulfed in a series of corporate governance
scandals.

($1 = 148.3000 yen)

 (Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Kim Coghill and
Christopher Cushing)
 ((Makiko.Yamazaki@thomsonreuters.com; +81-3-4563-2805;))