Writedowns associated with Toshiba’s nuclear business have seen the stock plunge to a four-decade low.
The FT reports that the Japanese conglomerate is in talks with the Bank of Japan, with a view to being assisted with state-ba
cked capital after stock plummeted to as much as 26 per cent.
A disastrous nuclear deal in the US is at the centre of the company’s woes. Toshiba had to make writedowns of “several billion dollars” related to US unit Westinghouse’s $229m acquisition last year of Chicago Bridge & Iron’s nuclear construction subsidiary, Stone & Webster.
Because of the impact of the problem, the company says it is considering further writedowns of between $1bn and $4.5bn. But analysts have since estimated that the total writedown, to be announced by mid-February, could be between $5bn and $8bn.
Toshiba convened an emergency meeting of its bank lenders in early January after several banks expressed concerns over extending loans to the company.
Toshiba share price lunges to lowest in decades
