(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Nomura Real Estate Holdings is considering buying the shares it doesn't already own in Toshiba Corp's NREG Toshiba Building Co, as the industrial group seeks to raise cash following an accounting scandal.
Nomura Real Estate is open to purchasing Toshiba's 35% stake in the property unit, Yusuke Hirano, the Tokyo-based developer's investor relations officer, said on Friday. No talks are underway, he said. Nomura paid ¥80bn ($645.6mn) in 2008 for 65% of the closely held property manager.
Toshiba has said it plans to sell stakes and other assets to rebuild a balance sheet and reputation rocked by an accounting probe that revealed it inflated earnings by at least $1.2bn since the 2008 financial year. President Hisao Tanaka quit, and the company has yet to install a new management team before releasing earnings next month and holding an emergency shareholder meeting in September.
"The company could raise ¥50bn to ¥100bn selling its real estate holdings," said Masahiro Mochizuki, a Tokyo-based analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. The figure includes Toshiba's stake in NREG and land it owns for factories, he said.
Toshiba is considering asset sale options, but it has nothing to announce at this moment, said Midori Hara, a spokeswoman for the company.
Toshiba also has the option of selling from the $4.6bn of shares it owns in other companies, including Toyota Motor Corp stock and Central Japan Railway Co. It already raised about ¥113bn selling its 4.6% stake in Finnish elevator and escalator maker Kone Oyj last week.
The maker of chips and nuclear reactors has lost more than $4bn in market capitalisation since May 8, when it withdrew forecasts and canceled the year-end dividend. The accounting probe revealed it inflated earnings by at least ¥156bn since the 2008 financial year.
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