東芝股價暴跌 難拾投資者信心

Investors wiped a fifth off Toshiba’s market value yesterday as they reassessed the company’s financial stability after its multibillion-dollar writedown warning.

投資者昨日抹去東芝(Toshiba)五分之一的市值，此前該公司警告將計提數十億美元的損失，促使投資者重新評估其財務穩定性。

Fund managers in Tokyo and Hong Kong said the nuclear-to-electronics conglomerate — once among the proudest names in corporate Japan — was fighting for survival with its slack corporate governance and repeated disclosure failures having “probably permanently” lost it the trust of investors.

位於東京和香港的基金管理公司稱，這家經營範圍涵蓋核電和電子的綜合企業集團——曾經是日本企業的驕傲之一——正在爲生存而掙扎，其鬆散的企業治理和一再出現的財務披露問題“很可能永遠”使其喪失了投資者的信任。

As the shares sank 20 per cent under a glut of sell orders — and Japanese agency R&I downgraded Toshiba’s credit rating from BBB minus to BB — Tokyo traders said the market was trying to price in the possibility that Toshiba’s shareholder equity would be zero by the end of the current fiscal year in March.

隨着大量賣盤導致股價下跌20%——同時日本評級機構R&I將東芝的信用評級從BBB-下調至BB級——東京交易員們表示，市場正試圖在定價中計入這樣一個可能性，即東芝的股東權益在3月本財年結束時將跌至零。

Bankers said efforts to shore up the company could involve a debt-for-equity swap, asset sales, big bank loans or other emergency measures.

銀行人士稱，支撐該公司的努力可能涉及債轉股、資產出售、大額銀行貸款或者其他緊急措施。

The plunge followed Toshiba’s warning the previous evening that it could book “several billion dollars” of impairment losses on part of its Westinghouse nuclear unit in the US — a key engine of efforts to revive its fortunes after a $1.3bn accounting scandal last year.

此輪股價下跌前晚，東芝警告稱，可能在其美國西屋(Westinghouse)核電部門計提“數十億美元”的資產減值損失。這塊業務在去年東芝曝出13億美元會計醜聞後出臺的振興計劃中扮演着關鍵引擎的角色。

Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citi, said: “We cannot say for sure that the nuclear plant construction business has a future.” More worryingly, said Mr Ezawa, was the perception that Toshiba had failed to address issues over its -disclosure and governance culture.

花旗(Citi)分析師繪澤浩太(Kota Ezawa)稱：“我們無法確切地說這個核電站建設部門有未來。”繪澤浩太表示，更令人擔憂的是，人們已經形成了東芝無法解決財務披露和治理文化問題的印象。

The latest impairment loss could be at least as large as the $2.3bn writedown Toshiba took on its nuclear business in April, and threatens the campaign by Satoshi Tsunakawa, the new chief executive, to rebuild investor confidence.

最新的減值損失可能至少與今年4月東芝對其核電業務減記23億美元規模相當，危及新任首席執行官崗川智(Satoshi Tsunakawa)重建投資者信心的努力。

One buyside analyst calculated the eventual writedown could be closer to $5bn — wiping out Toshiba’s shareholder equity, which stood at ￥363bn ($3.1bn) at the end of September.

據一位買方分析師計算，最終減記規模可能接近50億美元——抹掉東芝的全部股東權益（9月底該數字爲3630億日元，合31億美元）。

Shares in Toshiba closed down 12 per cent on Tuesday before the company confirmed the writedown.

週二，在東芝證實考慮資產減記前，其股價收跌12%。

The risk, acknowledged by the company itself, lies in the damage the writedown will do to Toshiba’s already weak financial position and shareholder equity levels. “We would have needed to boost our capital base anyway because our shareholders’ equity ratio is low,” Mr Tsunakawa said.

該公司承認，風險在於減記將損害東芝已然脆弱的財務狀況和股東權益水平。“我們無論如何都不得不增強我們的資本基礎，因爲我們的股東權益比率偏低，”崗川智表示。

Toshiba is expected to turn to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group, its main banks, for support once the scale of the impairment loss is calculated.

一旦計算好減值損失規模，預計東芝將爭取其主要銀行三井住友金融集團(Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group)和瑞穗金融集團 (Mizuho Financial Group)的支持。

The company acknowledged on Tuesday that it might reconsider the future of its nuclear business. Some specul-ate a restructuring could involve the sale of its flagship Nand memory business.

週二，該公司承認可能重新考慮其核電業務的未來。一些人推測，業務重組可能涉及出售東芝旗艦產品Nand閃存業務。

For their part, investors are focused on the as yet unknown size of the writedown, and analysts at Nomura Securities warn that with Toshiba yet to reveal the exact amount of the losses, “all the bad news is not out”.

就投資者而言，他們正聚焦於目前尚不得而知的減記規模。野村證券(Nomura Securities)的分析師警告稱，東芝尚未公佈具體的減值損失，“還有壞消息沒到來”。