Toshiba expecting record losses sheds 3,900 more jobs

20 April 2009

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corporation said that it will cut an additional 3,900 temporary jobs by next March as it expects  exceed its previously forecast net loss of 350 billion yen ($3.5 billion) for the financial year that ended last month.

The world's second biggest maker of NAND-type flash memory after Samsung Electronics said in a preliminary earnings statement that the downward revision from its earlier estimate of a 280-billon-yen loss was due to the price crash in the global semiconductor market and tax credit related costs.

The Tokyo-based company widened its net loss estimate by 25 per cent to 350 billion yen ($3.5 billion) after taking into account 85-billion yen in deferred tax assets, cutting its shareholder's equity ratio of a year ago to 8.2 per cent.

After reporting a net profit of $127.4 billion in the last business year, this years expected net loss would be the biggest ever loss in the company's history.

Toshiba denied in a statement that it was seeking to increase its capital by $5 billion as reported by Japan's Nikkei that the electronics ghiant may raise 300 billion yen by selling common stock and 200 billion yen through the sale of bonds.

Slumping demand and excess capacity have caused semiconductor prices to plunge, pushing makers of PC-use DRAM chips in particular to seek help, and sending Toshiba's chip business into the red in the first half of the business year.