The Japanese manufacturer Toshiba confirmed yesterday Wednesday in a press release the information of the Japanese economic newspaper Nikkei: the Japanese group, which operates in six sectors of activity including multifunction printers, professional copiers, and document management, has indeed received a takeover offer from the private equity firm based in Luxembourg CVC Capital Partners.
"The morning edition of Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported that CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm, has made a proposal to acquire Toshiba. This is not based on any statement from us. We received an initial proposal yesterday (Tuesday) and will request additional information to review the offer carefully. The company will make a further announcement in due course." indicates the group created in 1875 without giving more details.
According to Nikkei CVC Capital Partners would like to take the group out of the public markets by offering to buy back its shares at a 30% premium to the last price, which would value the group at about 2.3 trillion yen, or 17.6 billion euros.
This takeover could allow the powerful Japanese group to regain some calm in its management.
Since the budget overruns scandal at its U.S. nuclear subsidiary Westinghouse in 2015, Toshiba has seen activist funds buy up much of its stock following capital increases. And these new shareholders regularly challenge management's choices.
Last March, they even succeeded in getting a motion approved that management opposed: the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry into suspected vote manipulation at the last ordinary general meeting in July 2020, during which Nobuaki Kurumatani was re-elected as Toshiba's chief executive.
And information that is sure to make shareholders wonder: Nobuaki Kurumatani was president of CVC Capital Partners in Japan from 2017 to 2018, just prior to taking his position at Toshiba.
