Toshiba to sell part of its chip operations - sources
23/01/2016 08:10
TOKYO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp 6502.T
plans to sell part of its chip business as it aims to recover
from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal, three people familiar
with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.
The electronics conglomerate has started accepting bids,
with early interest shown by the Development Bank of Japan Inc,
said the sources, who declined to be identified because they are
not authorised to talk to the media.
The state-owned bank has already invested in Seiko Holdings
Corp's 8050.T semiconductor operations.
The sale would exclude Toshiba's mainstay NAND flash memory
operations, according to two people with direct knowledge of the
matter and one person familiar with the discussions.
On the block are businesses that handle system LSI and
discrete chips, which are widely used in cars, home appliances
and industrial machinery. The loss-making operations posted
sales of 330 billion yen ($2.78 billion) in the year ended March
2015.
A Toshiba spokesman told Reuters the company hasn't made a
decision yet on the sale of its chip operations, while a
spokeswoman at the Development Bank of Japan declined to
comment.
Following the accounting scandal, Toshiba has been focusing
on nuclear and other energy operations, as well as its storage
business, which centres on NAND flash memory chips used in smart
phones. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N12007Z
The Tokyo-based company, which is selling off non-core chip
operations, plans to invest heavily in its flash memory
production capacity in Japan to better compete with South
Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd 005930.KS .
($1 = 118.7700 yen)
(Reporting by Kentaro Hamada, Makiko Yamazaki, Taiga Uranaka;
Writing by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
((kiyoshi.takenaka@thomsonreuters.com; +81 3 6441 1810; Reuters
Messaging: kiyoshi.takenaka.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: TOSHIBA RESTRUCTURING/