Toshiba is at the centre of a takeover battle after it emerged that KKR was planning to outbid the rival private equity group CVC for the troubled Japanese conglomerate.
Adding to the turmoil, Nobuaki Kurumatani, Toshiba chief executive, was last night said to be preparing to step down from the company before a board meeting where directors had been considering ousting him.
Kurumatani’s former employer, CVC Capital Partners, last week tabled a $20 billion offer for Toshiba in what would be Japan’s biggest private equity buyout.
The Financial Times reported yesterday that CVC’s rival KKR was planning to outbid it and that Brookfield Asset Management, the Canadian investment group, was also poised to table a bid.
Toshiba has about 125,000 employees and wide-ranging businesses spanning power generation, electronic devices, water and sewage and railway systems. It was plunged into financial crisis in 2016 after its nuclear venture, Westinghouse, incurred huge cost overruns building reactors in America.
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Toshiba sold its prized memory chip business to a consortium led by Bain Capital to shore up its finances. It also pulled out of plans to build a new nuclear plant in Cumbria in 2018.
KKR, based in New York, has about $250 billion of assets under management globally while CVC, which has its main office in London, has $117.8 billion.
Kurumatani, who joined Toshiba in April 2018, was a rare external recruit to the company and had previously worked at CVC. He has come under pressure from employees and from activist investors seeking an investigation into whether management pressured shareholders to support their decisions. An internal investigation found no evidence.
Satoshi Tsunakawa, Toshiba’s chairman, was reported to be the likely candidate to succeed Kurumatani.
CVC is thought to have offered about 5,000 yen per share or close to $21 billion for Toshiba but some shareholders have criticised this as too low.
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An acquisition of Toshiba would need approval by the Japanese government.
