TOKYO: Troubled Japanese nuclear and electronics company Toshiba Corp. said on Tuesday it was considering selling its money-losing Westinghouse operations in the US.
The company mentioned the possibility of selling its majority stake in Westinghouse as it won approval for a second delay in reporting its earnings for October-December.
Toshiba had been scheduled to report earnings on Tuesday, after delaying the report due in February because of auditing problems. It now has until April 11 to produce the report.
The company released a plan saying it was speeding up its review of the US nuclear business, including selling Westinghouse. It said it intends to expand in renewable energy while also working on its nuclear business in Japan to try to restore stable growth.
Toshiba is expecting a group net loss of 500 billion yen ($4.3 billion) for April-December of last year, including a 712.5 billion yen ($6.2 billion) hit from its embattled nuclear business.
Toshiba's chairman has resigned to take responsibility for the company's troubles. President Satoshi Tsunakawa is giving a news conference later in the day to explain the delay.
The company's reputation has also been tarnished in recent years by a scandal over the doctoring of accounting books to meet unrealistic profit targets.
The latest news pushed its share price down about eight per cent earlier on Tuesday, though it recovered lost ground later in the day, gaining 0.5 per cent.
But its latest woes have ballooned after the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, which has boosted the costs of the business because of growing safety concerns and regulations, and a souring of sentiment toward nuclear power in some countries, such as Germany.
The company has said it will no longer take on new reactor construction projects and will focus on maintaining the reactors it already has. But it is also involved in the decommissioning of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns after the March 2011 tsunami.
Toshiba faces the risk of being delisted in Tokyo, It has already sold part of its chip business, and its president has said it is thinking about selling all of it to mend its finances. It sold its household appliance unit to Midea of China, which is maintaining the Toshiba brand name.
It also is selling its entire 65 per cent stake in a medical equipment leasing company to Japanese camera maker Canon Inc.