Toshiba to raise $5b

Japan's electronics giant Toshiba Corporation plans to raise around 500 billion yen (five billion dollars) in a bid to reverse its worsening financial situation, news reports said Saturday.
Toshiba is considering procuring 300 billion yen in capital through a public stock offering, the Nikkei business daily and Kyodo News reported, quoting industry sources.
The company will also ask banks and other financial institutions to buy subordinated bonds worth 200 billion yen by September, the sources were quoted as saying.
The new capital will be used to improve its semiconductor and nuclear power operations as the company is expected to incur huge losses amid the global economic slump, they said.
On Friday, Toshiba announced 3,900 job cuts and predicted a record annual loss of 350 billion yen in the financial year that ended last month, exceeding the 280-billion-yen shortfall it predicted in January.
Toshiba, which owns US nuclear-plant maker Westinghouse and is increasingly focused on the energy industry, has said it will cut capital investment to 250 billion yen in the current fiscal year, down 42 percent from the previous year.