Toshiba returns to Q1 profit, in line with estimates

TOKYO: Japan’s Toshiba Corp on Thursday reported a first-quarter operating profit that was in line with analyst estimates, helped by cost cuts and a recovery from a pandemic-driven hit to demand.

The Japanese conglomerate, which is conducting a strategic review, posted an operating profit of 14.53 billion yen ($132 million) for the April-June quarter, reversing a year-earlier loss of 12.64 billion yen.

The result compared with the 14.90 billion yen average of 5 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.

Toshiba maintained its annual profit forecast at 170 billion yen.

Toshiba began a strategic review in June to look at all of its assets and to engage with potential investors after the company dismissed a $20 billion take-private bid from CVC Capital in April, angering some shareholders.

Shareholders last month ousted the board chairman and another board member in a powerful rebuke to the company, which was found to have colluded with the trade ministry to block investors from gaining influence at last year’s general meeting.

The manufacturer of electronic devices, copiers and chip-making equipment is in the process of selecting candidates for additional board members and for potential successors to its interim chairman and CEO.

Toshiba is struggling to boost profits in businesses that it sees as its next growth drivers, such as batteries and power management devices.

The first-quarter profit represents less than a tenth of the company’s projected annual profit, but Toshiba’s earnings are skewed toward the second half of the financial year.

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