TOKYO, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday it will conduct negotiations solely with a government-led consortium over the sale of its prized memory-chip unit as the cash-strapped conglomerate tries desperately to bolster its financial position.
"Toshiba has determined that the consortium has presented the best proposal, not only in terms of valuation, but also in respect to certainty of closing, retention of employees, and maintenance of sensitive technology within Japan," the company said in a statement following the conclusion of its board meeting.
The consortium Toshiba was referring to comprises the state-backed Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, the state-owned Development Bank of Japan and U.S. fund Bain Capital.
The Republic of Korea's SK Hynix Inc. is also included in the government-led group, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.
The final agreement will be reached by June 28, Toshiba said, to coincide with its shareholders' meeting.
Toshiba, with its chip-making plant based in Mie Prefecture, central Japan, said that it hopes the sale of Toshiba Memory Corp. will be completed by March 2018.
Toshiba's joint chip partner, Western Digital Corp., however, is looking to block the sale. The U.S. firm has said the sale of the chip unit without its consent is in breach of their joint venture.
Western Digital has petitioned a U.S. court on the matter who will rule on the case possibly as early as July.
Cash-strapped Toshiba posted a group net loss of 532.51 billion yen (4.78 billion U.S. dollars) and a group operating loss of 576.28 billion yen, on sales of 3.85 trillion yen during the nine-months through December.
The net loss compares to previous estimates of 499 billion yen and 479.44 billion yen posted at the same time a year earlier.
The larger-than-expected losses follow Toshiba twice postponing the release of its financial figures since Feb. 14.
At the end of March, Toshiba approved a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the United States by its embattled Westinghouse Electric unit.
Toshiba said recently it was facing a possible 712.5 billion yen writedown on its failing nuclear energy business and a related group net loss of more than 1 trillion yen.
The Japanese firm which employs 188,000 people globally has run the risk of being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Toshiba's shares were placed on a "securities on alert" watchlist by the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September 2015, following an accounting scandal, which had initially dented the company's reputation.
Between 2008 and 2014 the multinational conglomerate was involved in padding its profits by 152 billion yen, leading to its chief, and half of its board resigning.
The firm was subsequently fined an unprecedented 60 million U.S. dollars.
Recent accounting irregularities at Westinghouse Electric have done little to improve the conglomerate's image.
In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis Toshiba has been struggling to secure new nuclear-related contracts.
Conversely, its prized chip operation booked an operating profit of 110 billion yen on sales of 845.60 billion yen in the fiscal year that ended March 2016.
This was at a time when the overall conglomerate logged a group operating loss of 708.74 billion yen.
Toshiba, looking ahead, hopes to raise at least 2 trillion yen through the sale of Toshiba Memory Corp, which is the world's second-largest producer of NAND flash memory chips.
Toshiba is also expected to sell its domestic television business, having already withdrawn from the international market. Enditem
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