Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/810144
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 12 APRIL 2017 11 Business Today www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way Toshiba's future in doubt as it reports $4.8 billion loss Toshiba has fi led its delayed fi nan- cial results, warning that the com- pany's survival is at risk. The Japanese electronics-to- construction giant reported a loss of $4.8 billion for April to December. The company could now be dismantled and sold to the highest bidders. This week, Taiwanese company Foxconn Technology Group signalled its readiness to pay as much as $27 billion for Toshiba's computer-chip business. Yesterday, Toshiba, a stalwart in Japan's post-war rise as a global industrial giant, warned that its disastrous foray into nuclear power had left substantial doubt over whether it could stay in business in its current form. "There are material events and conditions that raise substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern," the company said in a statement. It said, however, that it hopes to resolve the uncertainty and remove the going-concern warning by selling assets including its semiconductor unit, among other steps. In the earnings report, Toshiba reiterated that it anticipates a net loss of $9.1 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017, which would make it one of the biggest losses in Japanese corporate history. The loss stems from loan guarantees and other obligations related to nuclear-reactor projects by Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co. in the US. The projects have seen huge cost overruns. Toshiba said its auditors - PriceWaterhouseCooper Aarata - didn't sign off on the latest results released Tuesday. The auditors said they couldn't be certain that earlier accounting for Westinghouse was proper. Getting the approval of auditors is customary for an earnings filing in Japan but isn't mandatory. A Tokyo Stock Exchange spokeswoman said the bourse would look into why auditors didn't sign off on Toshiba's results. Toshiba had already received two extensions from the exchange for filing its nine-month results. The exchange has put Toshiba on a watch list and has been reviewing its governance following an earlier accounting scandal in 2015. That review could result in delisting, although the exchange would likely give careful thought to delisting a company of Toshiba's size. Toshiba's statement added: "At the present time, substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern exists as of the filing date of the quarterly report." Toshiba is the world's second-largest chip manufacturer, with its products used in data centres and consumer goods worldwide, including iPhones and iPads. Last year the company acquired control of Sharp, the maker of flat- screen television displays, for $3.5 billion. In doing so it overcame a rival bid from an investment fund backed by the Japanese government. Toshiba's microchips, a type known as NAND flash memory, are seen as a more valuable asset than TV screens. Japan — despite having pioneered liquid crystal displays — has lost most of its market share in screens to South Korea and China. Samsung of South Korea has overtaken Toshiba in NAND, but Toshiba remains the world's second- biggest producer, with a global share of just under 20%, according to market research groups. Analysts say its technology, commonly used in smartphones and USB drives, remains at the cutting edge. Malta Public Transport passengers up by 15% in the fi rst quarter of 2017 Malta Public Transport carried over 10.4 million passengers between January and March this year, repre- senting a 15% increase when com- pared to the number of passengers carried in the fi rst quarter of last year. This increase is represented across all customer segments. It is not only the strong increase in incoming tourists which has resulted in additional passengers, as the use of the personalised tallinja card increased by 10%, and this is typically used by those residing in Malta. The use of the adult tallinja card increased by 13%. This was followed by the student tallinja card with a 12% increase, where almost half of the passengers are over 18 years old, and are choosing to travel by bus instead of a private car. This indicates a turnaround in the public's mind-set towards public transport. The popularity of the personalised tallinja card continued to increase, with 7,000 new registrations in the first three months of the year. The company also noted an increase in the number of frequent passengers. When comparing the number of passengers who made over 60 trips during the first three months in 2017 and 2016, a significant increase of 7% was registered this year. "We would like to thank our passengers for choosing to travel by bus," Konrad Pulé, General Manager of Malta Public Transport said. "We are very pleased to see a consistent growth in the use of our service, with more and more people using the bus. This is very encouraging, and continues to motivate us to invest further in our service." The company will be introducing additional buses in the coming months. It will also be introducing special direct services that will add capacity to the current network, besides offering passengers a quicker way to get to their destination.