Toshiba : the title collapses in the stock Exchange – The Figaro

the leadership of The industrial conglomerate japanese Toshiba acknowledged that it had incorrectly calculated the risk during the acquisition by its subsidiary, Westinghouse nuclear, a company in the same sector in the United States, which shot the action in the Stock market and plunged the group into a new crisis. The title, whose listing was delayed on Wednesday at the opening, fell 20,42% in early trade, falling to 311,6 yen, the lowest authorized for the day. It had already dropped 12% Tuesday.

Toshiba announced on Tuesday that fear of having to record an impairment of assets of “several billion dollars” on its nuclear activity, u.s. and fears of an impact on its financial statements. The group is all the more wrong that he has lost some of the confidence of the markets in the past year because of embezzlement. It is always under high surveillance. “We had considered at the time that the advantage of redemption of CB&I Stone & Webster by Westinghouse were greater than the risks,” explained the CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa, Tuesday night during a press conference.

But the re-evaluation of the costs faced by the firm, which operates in the field of construction of nuclear sites, as well as decontamination and decommissioning, has become disillusioned Toshiba.

“This re-evaluation has been too late,” lamented the CEO. The accounting rules u.s. require an estimate of the values of assets in the year following their redemption. In this case, Westinghouse has underestimated the initial cost of the projects in which it was embedded S&W, where the probability of having to take into account an exceptional charge phenomenal still under consideration.

And the boss, Toshiba does not exclude a revision of the place of the nuclear activity within the group: “at the present time, we have not yet made a decision, but in the future it is a possibility. I say this without a concrete plan”. Toshiba is again in a delicate situation, as the company had hoped to be in the process of getting away from deal after the restructuring led to the result of a resounding scandal of manipulation of accounts.