Toshiba 2016 gains wiped out

Down trend: Pedestrians walking past a building with the logo of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba on its side in Kawasaki, suburban Tokyo. Toshiba shares dived more than 17 yesterday, their third straight double-digit plunge, following the company’s warning of a possible one-time loss of US6.8bil over its US nuclear business. – AFP

TOKYO: Toshiba Corp’s impending multi-billion-dollar writedown has triggered one of the worst-ever share declines for a major Japanese company, with ratings downgrades and investor pessimism erasing almost all of its 87% rally this year.

Shares in the electronics and industrial conglomerate fell 17% to 259 yen at the close yesterday. Toshiba said it might write down billions of dollars of an acquisition made by US unit Westinghouse Electric, fuelling a share decline this week that has wiped out about 800 billion yen (US$6.8bil) in market value. Moody’s Investors Service, Rating and Investment Information Inc (R&I) and S&P Global Ratings all responded by cutting Toshiba’s credit ratings.