Toshiba Corp shares fell by the most in two months on Friday after an agreement to offload its US liquefied natural gas (LNG) business collapsed, a blow for the Japanese company which has been shedding assets to turn around its business. Toshiba said late on Thursday that China’s ENN Ecological Holdings Co had scrapped an agreement to take over the LNG business due to a failure to get approvals from shareholders and a US panel that monitors foreign investments. Toshiba shares fell as much as 5.4 percent before closing down 2.7 percent, the biggest drop since Feb. 12. The broader market gained 0.7 percent. Toshiba must now look for a new buyer for the business that it previously said may cause losses of as much as 1 trillion yen (£6.9 billion). Spot LNG prices are trading at about half the level they were when Toshiba agreed to pay ENN more than $800 million to take over its US operations. A failure to find a buyer could derail Toshiba’s recovery from the fallout of the bankruptcy of its US nuclear power unit Westinghouse, analysts have said. “The challenge in obtaining US approvals provided an opportunity for ENN to walk away from a deal that will be out of the money in the near term following a collapse in LNG spot prices,” said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research for Australia at Credit Suisse.
Toshiba shares slump after sale cancellation of US LNG business
Published on: April 13, 2019 12:58 AM