Saturday, June 27, 2009

New CEO Takes Helm at Toshiba

On June 24 Norio Sasaki, 60 years old, was appointed president and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. Toshiba lost $3.61 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31. In an attempt to shore up its balance sheet the company issued $5 billion in additional debt and equity.

Mr. Sasaki immediately set a goal of boosting the shareholder equity ratio from 19% to 30%. As noted by Daisuke Wakabayashi and Yuzo Yamaguchi in the WSJ, In order to meet the target, Toshiba not only needs to return to profitability, but might also have to exit unprofitable or weak businesses, as well as overhaul its capital-intensive chip operations. In the past, the company has been reluctant to take such steps.

In discussing business units, the article focused on semi conductors and nuclear power plants. Mr. Sasaki started in Toshiba’s nuclear power plant business and expects “significant growth” in revenues over the next two years. There was no mention of the office equipment business in the article.