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Japan's Kioxia and U.S. chipmaker Western Digital have been hit hard by plunging market demand and oversupply. Combining their flash memory businesses could boost competitiveness against rivals like South Korea's Samsung Electronics (005930.KS). Western Digital did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Kioxia, previously Toshiba Memory, was sold by Toshiba Corp (6502.T) in 2018 to a consortium led by Bain Capital for $18 billion. Kioxia and Western Digital were in merger talks in 2021 before the negotiations stalled over a series of issues including valuation discrepancies.

☆ One-fifth of water pollution comes from textile dyes. But a new material inspired by shellfish could clean it up
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Rebecca Cairns | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Every year, the textile industry uses 1.3 trillion gallons of water to dye garments – enough to fill 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. Textile wastewater contains toxic chemicals from dyes that pollute the enviornment -- like wastewater released from factories into Dravyavati River, in India (pictured). Noemi Cassanelli/AFP/Getty ImagesThey targeted “anionic dyes,” because there are not many effective methods to remove these types of dye from water. He also hopes to devise solutions for cleaning more than just textile dyes from water. Nashef says that using membrane-based nanomaterials in pre-treatment could cut the energy needed to clean the water.

☆ Private equity finds silver lining in Asia Pacific
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MELBOURNE, March 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - It’s hard working in Asia-Pacific private equity these days. On Monday Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO) and MidOcean Energy agreed to take Australia’s Origin Energy (ORG.AX) private for A$18.7 billion ($12.5 billion). A few days earlier Toshiba’s (6502.T) board tentatively backed Japan Industrial Partners’ $15.3 billion offer. Origin’s buyers, which plan to split the business in two, had already made three offers before Origin accepted. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Other investors who have held Toshiba longer may not be so lucky: the offer price represents a 15% discount from a December 2014 high. Some were introduced to JIP by Toshiba's management, some of the people said, declining to be identified because the information is not public. Toshiba's management, including CEO Taro Shimada, will stay on, while the government keeps Toshiba's sensitive defence and nuclear technologies in Japanese hands. Toshiba felt stable shareholders were desirable to end the tumult, unlike current shareholders "with many differing views", it said. JIP does not see the need for big strategy adjustments, Toshiba said.

March 24 (Reuters) - Financial sector headwinds are creating fresh openings for private equity investments in aerospace, as suppliers' need for capital to meet soaring demand for planes and parts risks further turbulence, executives said. He said he would not oppose a private equity investment, as long as he maintains control and the combination makes sense by lowering costs. Global private equity deals among companies with aerospace portfolios rose to 216 in 2022, more than double 2019's figure and the highest in over a decade, according to Refinitiv data. Permanent Equity wants to invest in repair stations and suppliers with large inventories of aerospace parts. In Canada, while bank loans remain accessible for small suppliers, rising rates have flattened real estate pricing.

☆ Toshiba Announces $15 Billion Plan to Be Taken Private
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Peter Landers | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Visitors explored the Toshiba booth at the International Nanotechnology Exhibition and Conference in Tokyo last month. TOKYO—Japanese industrial conglomerate Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it has agreed to a deal worth ¥2 trillion, equivalent to $15 billion, to take the company private. Toshiba said the buyout would be led by Japan Industrial Partners Inc., a Tokyo-based investment fund. It said the buyers were offering ¥4,620 a share, about 10% above the closing price of ¥4,213 in Tokyo Stock Exchange trading Thursday. That values the company at about ¥2 trillion.

☆ Toshiba board accepts Japan Industrial Partners' $15 bln buyout proposal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Makiko Yamazaki | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

TOKYO, March 23 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp's (6502.T) board has accepted a buyout offer from a group led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners, valuing the company at 2 trillion yen ($15.2 billion), the company said on Thursday. [1/2] The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen at the company's facility in Kawasaki, Japan June 10, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo 1 2The fallout from that debacle eventually led to the strategic review and the buyout proposal. Toshiba started an auction process about a year ago, receiving eight initial buyout proposals as well as two offers for capital alliances. The JIP consortium last month submitted a binding buyout proposal backed by $10.6 billion in loan commitments from major banks.

☆ The long-running crisis at Japan's Toshiba
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Makiko Yamazaki | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Faced with more than $6 billion in liabilities linked to Westinghouse, Toshiba decides to put prized chip unit Toshiba Memory up for sale. Nov. 2021 - Toshiba says it will split into three companies, one for energy, one for infrastructure and the third to manage its Kioxia stake. Feb. 2022 - Toshiba announces a new plan to split into two, spinning off only its devices unit. April 2022 - Toshiba sets up a special committee to resume a strategic review that could see it taken private. Under pressure from shareholders, Toshiba announces a special dividend of some $545 million.

☆ Toshiba board accepts Japan Industrial Partners' $15 billion buyout proposal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Toshiba Corp's board has accepted a buyout offer from a group led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners, valuing the company at 2 trillion yen ($15.2 billion), the company said on Thursday. A successful deal would see the scandal-ridden industrial conglomerate taken private and firmly in domestic hands after much tension with overseas activist shareholders. Some 20 Japanese companies including financial services firm Orix Corp, chipmaker Rohm Co <6963.T> and Chubu Electric Power plan to take part in the deal, sources have said. Toshiba started an auction process about a year ago, receiving eight initial buyout proposals as well as two offers for capital alliances. The JIP consortium last month submitted a binding buyout proposal backed by $10.6 billion in loan commitments from major banks.

☆ Toshiba board agrees to accept JIP's $15.3 bln buyout proposal -Nikkei
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen at the company's facility in Kawasaki, Japan June 10, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File PhotoTOKYO, March 23 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp's (6502.T) board on Thursday agreed to accept a buyout proposal worth around 2 trillion yen ($15.3 billion) from a consortium led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), the Nikkei business daily reported. The JIP consortium last month submitted a binding buyout proposal backed by $10.6 billion in loan commitments from major banks. It has taken weeks for the board to proceed with a vote on JIP's proposal as some board members were dissatisfied with its offer price, sources have said. "If the early reports are correct, this ends months of uncertainty regarding whether a deal was coming and years of uncertainty regarding Board understanding of the right price," said analyst Travis Lundy of Quiddity Advisors, who publishes on Smartkarma.

☆ Toshiba warns on profit after Q3 slump; COO resigns over expenses
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Makiko Yamazaki | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Companies Toshiba Corp FollowTOKYO, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp (6502.T) slashed its annual earnings estimate after third-quarter profit slumped, while its chief operating officer resigned over the inappropriate use of entertainment expenses some years ago. Hit by weak demand for hard disk drives due to reduced investments in data, Toshiba said quarterly operating profit tumbled 88% to 5.3 billion yen ($40.4 million), far less than a Refinitiv consensus estimate of 37 billion yen. The industrial conglomerate also took a large charge relating to an old project for its power generation systems business. Its profit estimate for the year ending in March was cut by a quarter to 95 billion yen. Toshiba said COO Goro Yanase had resigned over the inappropriate use of entertainment expenses in 2019 when he was an executive at a company unit.

"The company has received a proposal from the JIP consortium," Toshiba said in a statement. Two of the sources said major Japanese banks, including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), had issued letters of commitment to provide 1.4 trillion yen ($10.6 billion) in loans to the group. The final buyout proposal would also include an equity portion of about 1 trillion yen, they said. The Nikkei business daily reported the total value of the buyout proposal was around 2 trillion yen. JIP was then asked by Toshiba to provide commitment letters from banks by Nov. 7, something it was unable to do.

Major Japanese banks, including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), had issued letters of commitment to provide the loans to the JIP-led group, said two of the sources, who declined to be identified because the information has not been made public. The 1.4 trillion yen of loans included a commitment line of 200 billion yen for working capital, the sources said. The final buyout proposal would also include an equity portion of about 1 trillion yen, they said. The Nikkei business daily reported a final buyout proposal worth around 2 trillion yen. The banks asked Toshiba to promise the sale of underperforming businesses if earnings deteriorated after a buyout was concluded, sources, including those who spoke on Thursday, have previously said.

Major Japanese banks, including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), have issued letters of commitment to provide the loans to the JIP-led group, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the information has not been made public. The Nikkei business daily reported a final buyout proposal worth around 2 trillion yen had been submitted. Sources said the 1.4 trillion yen of loans included a commitment line of 200 billion yen for working capital. Toshiba named the JIP-led group as its preferred bidder in October. The private equity firm was then asked by Toshiba to provide commitment letters from banks by Nov. 7, something it was unable to secure by that date.

☆ UK scientists found a way to slash nearly 90% of carbon emissions from the country's steel industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Now, researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a process to clean up the most carbon-intensive part of the steelmaking process: blast furnaces. Currently, coking coal and iron ore are fed into furnaces and heated to sky-high temperatures to create liquid iron, which is then refined into steel. About 70% of steel used around the world for buildings, cars, and household appliances is made this way. For every metric ton of steel produced, nearly two metric tons of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, according to the World Steel Organization. Kildahl described it as a "closed-loop" system that captures and recycles carbon dioxide to trigger the chemical reactions that convert iron ore into steel.

☆ Toshiba buyout heralds a big step back for Japan
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

MUMBAI, Jan 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The end of a long battle to wring some value from Toshiba (6502.T) is finally within reach. Such an outcome won’t encourage private equity firms, and big policy shifts underway may stifle the industry just as it hits a new high. Instead, after an accounting scandal in 2015, Toshiba came to epitomise Japan Inc’s pervasive value destruction. Japan typically outperforms private equity deals in other developed markets, partly because existing incentive structures for company bosses are so poor. The country’s private equity industry is only just finding its feet.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology removes CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and stores them underground. * Smeaheia, a project by Equinor to develop a storage site in the North Sea with a potential to inject up to 20 mtpa from 2027/2028. The project plans to transport CO2 via pipelines to a storage site some 145 km offshore in the southern North Sea. ICELAND* The Coda Terminal will be a cross-border carbon transport and storage hub in Straumsvík, operated by Icelandic carbon storage firm Carbfix. The full capture, transport and storage chain will handle up to 100,000 mtpa of CO2.

The 1.4 trillion yen includes 200 billion yen in working capital, they said. The main banking arms of Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc (8309.T) are together expected to lend more than 1 trillion yen, three sources said. The core bank unit of Japan's biggest financial group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T) and Aozora Bank Ltd (8304.T) are also participating, they added. Spokespeople for all five banks declined to comment. Toshiba named a JIP-led group as its preferred bidder in October for the buyout process.

☆ Toshiba's preferred bidder to seal $10.6 bln loan deal this week -Yomiuri
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), the preferred bidder to buy out Toshiba Corp (6502.T), is set to sign a loan agreement of about 1.4 trillion yen ($10.6 billion) with lenders this week, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Thursday. The loans include a commitment line of 200 billion yen, the paper said. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (8316.T) and Mizuho Bank (8411.T) would provide about 400 billion yen to 500 billion yen each, it said. The deal is expected to value the industrial conglomerate at around 2.2 trillion yen, although the Nikkei business daily reported at the weekend that JIP could lower it to below 2 trillion yen. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Mizuho Bank both declined to comment on the Yomiuri report.

☆ Toshiba's preferred bidder may lower valuation below 2 trillion yen, Nikkei reports
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), the preferred bidder to buy out Toshiba Corp (6502.T), may lower the valuation from the planned 2.2 trillion yen ($16.09 billion) to levels below 2 trillion yen, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday. Even though JIP has secured funding worth 1 trillion yen in equity from domestic companies and 1.2 trillion yen in loans from major banks, it may cut the valuation in light of a recent deterioration in Toshiba's earnings and the need for post-buyout working capital, the Nikkei said. Toshiba said in a letter to shareholders on Friday that it was aiming to reach a conclusion with potential partners as soon as possible. read moreIt is "planning to receive binding and bona-fide proposal(s) and shall be making strong efforts to arrive at a conclusion as early as possible after necessary negotiations," the letter said. ($1 = 136.6900 yen)Reporting by Tokyo Newsroom; Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Toshiba says aims to reach deal with potential partners soon as possible
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp (6502.T), which is talks about a buyout, said in a letter to shareholders on Friday that it was aiming to reach as conclusion with potential partners as soon as possible. Toshiba is "planning to receive binding and bona-fide proposal(s) and shall be making strong efforts to arrive at a conclusion as early as possible after necessary negotiations," the letter said. Sources have told Reuters that the company's preferred bidder, Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), was moving closer to securing financing from banks for a buyout. A deal is expected to value the industrial conglomerate at around 2.2 trillion yen ($16 billion). Shares in Toshiba, whose businesses span nuclear power, defence technology and which owns 40% of memory chip maker Kioxia Holdings, were up 1.7% in mid-morning trade.

☆ Airbus CEO details broad post-crisis industrial hurdles
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Tim Hepher | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury speaks during a visit of German Economy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck at Airbus research facilities in Hamburg, Germany, January 18, 2022. Airbus (AIR.PA) Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said the situation had also been aggravated by recent COVID restrictions leading to capacity closures in China, a major supplier. "There is an enormous problem in bringing the industrial supply chain back to strength worldwide, in the aviation world but not only in aviation," Faury told French journalists. "There is a lot of interdependence between the aerospace supply chain and electronic cards and components, raw materials and the availability of energy and skills at a worldwide level," Faury told the AJPAE French aerospace media association. Airbus assembles some aircraft and derives a large proportion of parts from suppliers in the United States.

TOKYO/HONG KONG, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Japan Industrial Partners, the preferred bidder to buy out Toshiba Corp (6502.T), has moved closer to securing financing from banks, three people with knowledge of the matter said. JIP's bid has called for Toshiba management to retain their jobs - a proposal which initially made some of the banks cautious about lending, sources have said. The sources all declined to be identified as the talks are private. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, the core unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (8316.T), and Mizuho Bank Ltd, the core unit of Mizuho Financial Group Inc (8411.T) declined to comment. ($1 = 137.0500 yen)Reporting by Kane Wu, Makiko Yamazaki and Ritsuko Shimizu; Editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Why aluminum plants in the U.S. are far more polluting than some of their counterparts abroad
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Phil Mckenna | Inside Climate News | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +15 min

A plant worker uses a crane to lift a cask of molten aluminum a Century Aluminum Company plant in Hawesville, Ky. in 2017. Of the five remaining facilities, only the Century Aluminum Sebree plant in Robards, which employs 625 workers, and a smaller Alcoa plant in Massena, New York, run at full capacity. Phillip McKenna/NBC NewsSteinsen, of Century Aluminum, said the company has no plans to shut down its Sebree facility in Robards. In 2015, when the U.S. aluminum production was in steep decline, the EPA ended its industry partnership. In 2019, 7,510 metric tons of PFCs were emitted from global aluminum production, according to a study published last year in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Atmospheres.

☆ Aluminum plants in the U.S. are releasing tons of a highly potent greenhouse gas, unlike their counterparts abroad
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Phil Mckenna | Inside Climate News | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

In written testimony submitted to the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2017, Century Aluminum executives said aluminum producers were being "decimated" by "unfair practices of Chinese aluminum producers." "The continued viability of the aluminum industry outside of China, and especially in the United States, is dependent upon a prompt and effective solution to China's overcapacity and overproduction." Steinsen, of Century Aluminum, said the company has no plans to shut down its Sebree facility in Robards. A spokesperson for the agency said, "EPA continues to track facility specific emissions from the aluminum industry through the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program." In 2019, 7,510 metric tons of PFCs were emitted from global aluminum production, according to a study published last year in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Atmospheres.

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