http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/28/business/corporate-business/toshiba-chairman-resign-struggling-u-s-nuclear-business/
Toshiba to withdraw from nuclear plant construction, chairman to quit
Kyodo
Jan 28, 2017
Toshiba Corp. will cease taking orders related to the building of
nuclear power stations, sources said Saturday, in a move that would
effectively mark its withdrawal from the nuclear plant construction
business.
The news comes amid reports Toshiba’s chairman may resign over the
massive write-down that has doomed the company’s U.S. nuclear business.
The multinational conglomerate said Friday it will review its nuclear
operations and spin off its chip business to raise funds in a bid to
cover an expected asset impairment loss of up to ¥700 billion ($6.08
billion).
After Toshiba ceases taking new orders, it will focus on maintenance and
decommissioning operations, according to the sources.
The company will continue work on four nuclear plants under construction
in the United States that are expected to be completed by 2020.
The Japanese industrial conglomerate may announce company chairman
Shigenori Shiga’s resignation as soon as Feb. 14, when it reports its
April-December financial results, the sources also said.
Shiga once served as president of the U.S. nuclear unit, Westinghouse
Electric Co., which Toshiba has said could face a multibillion-dollar
loss due to cost overruns from delays in plant projects.
The post of Toshiba chairman is expected to remain vacant after Shiga’s
resignation.
Westinghouse Chairman Danny Roderick is also set to step down, the
sources said, but Toshiba President Satoshi Tsunakawa is likely to stay on.
Shiga, Roderick and Tsunakawa took their current posts last June as
Toshiba reshuffled its management following an accounting scandal that
surfaced in 2015.
Shiga was the vice president in charge of the power systems business
when Westinghouse acquired CB&I Stone & Webster in late 2015. CB&I Stone
& Webster is the U.S. nuclear plant construction firm at the heart of
Toshiba’s massive write-down problem.