Toshiba lowers its full-year profit forecast

TOKYO, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Japan’s Toshiba Corp reported an 87.5% drop in third-quarter operating profit on Tuesday and lowered its full-year profit estimate .

He also said COO Goro Yanase quit over improper use of entertainment spending in 2019 when he was an executive at Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions Corp.

Toshiba posted operating income of 5.3 billion yen ($40.4 million) in the October-December quarter, well below the median estimate of 36.95 billion yen from four analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Toshiba cut its operating profit forecast for the year ending March from 125 billion yen to 95 billion yen.

The weak results come at a time when the struggling industrial conglomerate is considering a takeover proposal from a consortium led by venture capital firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP).

The JIP Consortium submitted its official proposal last week, after sources said investors had secured 1.4 trillion yen ($10.6 billion) in loan commitments for its purchase, including a pledge of 200,000 million yen for working capital.

The final purchase proposal would also include an equity stake of around 1 trillion yen, the sources said, adding that many details of the eventual purchase have yet to be set.

($1 = 131.8800 yen)

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina Gibbs, Spanish editing by José Muñoz in the Gdansk newsroom)