Tokyo,NOV 08:
Toshiba Corp said it is liquidating its British nuclear power unit and selling its US liquefied natural gas business, in an effort to shed troubled assets that could have exposed the Japanese company to future losses.
The plans are part of a new five-year business strategy Toshiba announced on Thursday, which also included more than 2,000 job cuts.
Toshiba shares surged as much as 11.8 per cent to near two-year highs after the announcement.
The decisions come as the company struggles to find new growth pillars after the sale of its prized memory chip unit earlier this year left it with low-margin businesses.
Toshiba sold the world’s No 2 memory chip business to a consortium led by US private equity firm Bain Capital to recover from years of financial trouble brought about by accounting scandals and cost-overruns at its now-bankrupt US nuclear unit Westinghouse.
The decision to liquidate the nuclear power unit, NuGen, would be a blow to Britain’s plans to build a nuclear plant that was meant to provide 7 percent of the country’s electricity.
