Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 6, 2015.

TOKYO: Troubled Japanese conglomerate Toshiba is expected to announce a whopping loss of ¥90 billion (RM3.18 billion) for the six months to September as it deals with a huge accounting scandal, a report said yesterday.

The operating loss — its first in six years — compares to a year-earlier ¥137.8 billion profit, the leading Nikkei business daily said without citing sources.

However Toshiba, which sells everything from rice cookers to nuclear reactors, is set to report a net profit of about ¥40 billion for the half-year after selling stakes in group companies, the newspaper said.

The 140-year-old company has said it will book a ¥37.8 billion net loss for the fiscal year to March 2015 to account for a billion-dollar profit-padding scandal that hammered its reputation.

Toshiba shares fell 3.38% to close at ¥331.4 yesterday.

Responding to the Nikkei report, Toshiba confirmed that it would register a half-year operating loss and net profit for the period, but declined to provide figures.

The scandal has slowed restructuring efforts at Toshiba, hampering attempts to turn around its “lifestyle” products segment, which includes items such as computers, televisions and washing machines, the Nikkei said.

Profit margins narrowed in the mainstay chip business amid falling prices for smartphone flash memory, it said.

The report noted that earnings in the energy and infrastructure segment tend to be weighted toward the second half, leading to relatively smaller contributions in the first-half results.

A slowing outlook for such areas as point-of-sale systems, widely used by retailers, has forced Toshiba to book losses worth roughly ¥70 billion during the six months, the Nikkei said.

The company is still reeling from what is considered to be one of the most damaging accounting scandals to hit Japan in recent years. The case forced the incumbent president and seven other top executives to resign after a company-hired panel found top management colluded to puff up profits.

Toshiba plans to release its earnings tomorrow because many of its newly appointed outside board members — reputed business leaders, lawyers and accountants — are only able to meet on weekends. — AFP

 

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