Toshiba Recommends Acceptance Of Buyout Offer

Toshiba Corp. said it has decided to recommend its shareholders sell their holdings in a 2 trillion yen ($14.3 billion) tender offer by a consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners Inc., a major step toward the planned privatization of the struggling tech giant, Mainichi Japan reported.

Photo Insert: Akihiro Watanabe, Toshiba's board chairman, said at a press conference that the worsening business environment for its 40% -held chip affiliate Kioxia Holdings Corp. and a lack of any other rival offer are behind the decision.

The conglomerate voted at a board meeting in favor of the buyout offer in March but then stopped short of recommending share sales at the offer price of 4,620 yen a share, which the company saw as low.

The offer price by the consortium that includes Tokyo-based JIP, Orix Corp. and Rohm Co. is only a 1.8 percent premium to the company's closing stock price Thursday on the Tokyo stock market of 4,540 yen.

Akihiro Watanabe, Toshiba's board chairman, said at a press conference that the worsening business environment for its 40% -held chip affiliate Kioxia Holdings Corp. and a lack of any other rival offer are behind the decision.

"We continue to be faced with an uncertain macroeconomic environment," Watanabe said. "Under such circumstances, we thought JIP is unlikely to raise their offer price."

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