東芝129億日元向中國海信出售電視業(yè)務(wù)

Toshiba is to sell its television business in its latest effort to raise emergency funds, parting ways with a division that once symbolised the dominance of Japanese technology and thrust the brand into millions of living rooms around the world.

東芝(Toshiba)將出售其電視業(yè)務(wù)部門以籌集緊急資金，該部門曾經(jīng)象征著日本的科技主導(dǎo)地位，并讓東芝這個品牌進(jìn)入世界各地數(shù)以百萬計的客廳。

In a signal of how far the value of Toshiba’s TV unit has fallen — and of how aggressively Toshiba is now shedding parts of the company — the conglomerate sold 95 per cent of its TV and visual products subsidiary for just Y12.9bn ($114m) to Hisense, the Qingdao-based electronics group. In the past, a big technology sale to China might have triggered outrage in Japan but one Tokyo-based analyst said on Tuesday that the move was “unlikely to raise many eyebrows”.

突顯東芝電視部門的價值嚴(yán)重縮水——以及東芝正如何激進(jìn)地剝離企業(yè)的某些部分——的一個跡象是，這家綜合企業(yè)集團(tuán)將其電視和映像產(chǎn)品子公司95%股份作價僅129億日元(合1.14億美元)，出售給總部位于青島的電子集團(tuán)海信(Hisense)。以往，向中資買家出售大筆科技資產(chǎn)可能在日本國內(nèi)引發(fā)憤怒，但是常駐東京的一名分析師周二表示，這筆交易“不太可能引起很大反應(yīng)”。

The sale comes as people close to Toshiba have described “ongoing problems” behind the scenes of the company’s efforts to secure its finances after huge losses emerged last year at its US nuclear subsidiary.

這筆交易出爐之際，接近東芝的人士透露，該公司為穩(wěn)住其財務(wù)狀況而作出的努力背后“問題持續(xù)不斷”。去年東芝在美國的核電子公司曝出巨額虧損。

In September, Toshiba signed the Y2tn sale of the memory chip business, its most valuable unit, to a consortium led by private equity firm Bain Capital. But the company admitted earlier this month that it was making contingency plans in case the deal was not completed by the end of Toshiba’s financial year in March 2018.

今年9月，東芝簽署了以2萬億日元出售其最有價值的存儲芯片業(yè)務(wù)的交易，買家是由私募股權(quán)公司貝恩資本(Bain Capital)牽頭的一個財團(tuán)。但該公司本月早些時候承認(rèn)，正在制定應(yīng)急計劃，以備該交易不能在2018年3月東芝財年結(jié)束時完成。

The biggest threat to the sale arises from an embittered legal dispute between Toshiba and Western Digital, Toshiba’s business partner in the joint venture that underlies the unit.

那筆交易面對的最大威脅源于東芝和西部數(shù)據(jù)(Western Digital)之間一場激烈的法律糾紛。西部數(shù)據(jù)是東芝在支撐其存儲芯片業(yè)務(wù)的一家合資公司中的伙伴。

Western Digital filed a lawsuit in the US in an attempt to block the sale. The case is expected to drag on for years but lawyers expect that the next few months could produce a judgment on whether the sale could be suspended during that process.

西部數(shù)據(jù)在美國提起訴訟，企圖阻止這一出售。預(yù)計該案會拖延多年，但律師們預(yù)計，對于在此過程中是否可以暫停出售交易，未來幾個月可能會有一個裁決。

A pause could cause significant trouble for Toshiba, which remains at risk of being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange if the sale is not completed by the end of March and the company endured a second consecutive year in negative shareholder equity.

暫停交易會給東芝帶來重大麻煩：如果在明年3月底之前不能完成出售，且該公司連續(xù)第二年出現(xiàn)負(fù)值股東權(quán)益，那么東芝仍有可能被東京證券交易所(Tokyo Stock Exchange)摘牌。

Alongside the sale of the chip unit, people close to the company said Toshiba has been studying how it might offload other parts of a conglomerate that sprawls across hundreds of subsidiaries and affiliates from hospital management to elevator manufacturing.

接近該公司的人士表示，在出售芯片業(yè)務(wù)部門的同時，東芝也在研究如何剝離其他部門。這個龐大的綜合企業(yè)集團(tuán)有數(shù)百家子公司和關(guān)聯(lián)公司，業(yè)務(wù)從醫(yī)院管理到電梯制造，分布面極廣。

Those include the possibility of a sale of new shares — possibly worth as much as Y600bn. Reports of such a large dilution, which emerged last week, lopped about 10 per cent off Toshiba’s value over two days of trading.

其中一個選項是發(fā)售新股，可能高達(dá)6000億日元。上周有關(guān)這種大幅度稀釋的報道使東芝的市值在兩個交易日中蒸發(fā)大約10%。