Toshiba announces $8.7bn net loss in 2016

Tokyo, Aug 10 (IANS) Japanese tech giant Toshiba incurred a net loss of 965.6 billion yen ($8.7 billion) in the 2016 fiscal year, according to its financial results released on Thursday.

The company released its financial results for the previous fiscal year, which ended on March 31, after having obtained partial approval from its auditors and postponed the announcement on three occasions, reports Efe news.

Toshiba's massive losses and accounting problems in the last financial year have primarily stemmed from the indebtedness of its nuclear power plant division, Westinghouse Electric, in the US, which declared bankruptcy in March, and also caused the Japanese group to be demoted to the second section at the Tokyo Stock Exchange last week.

As a result, Toshiba also incurred a negative net worth of 552.9 billion yen, the company said in the statement.

Despite this, the Japanese conglomerate posted an operating profit of 270.79 billion yen during the 2016 fiscal year, marking a significant rebound compared to 2015 when the company posted almost double the losses.

Sales declined 5.5 per cent year-on-year to 4.87 trillion yen.

For the current financial year, which will end on March 31, 2018, Toshiba expects to return to profit and register a net profit of 230 billion yen.

The company also estimates that its operating profit would rise to 400 billion yen, a 77.4 percent inter-annual increase, while sales would grow 2 percent to 4.97 trillion yen.

The bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric propelled Toshiba to begin a process of restructuring - including the sale of its memory chips business, which has also been pushed back and whose terms are being negotiated with a Japanese conglomerate.

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