Toshiba shares drop as battle over $18b chip unit sale looms

Tokyo: Toshiba shares fell Thursday as it faced a court battle over the $18 billion (Dh66 billion) sale of its prized memory chip business, a deal seen as crucial to the Japanese industrial conglomerate’s survival. The embattled stock fell as much as 5.39 per cent in morning trade before ending the day at 310 yen, down 1.58 per cent. Toshiba announced late Wednesday the sale to a group led by US investor Bain Capital and which includes US tech giants Apple and Dell as well as South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix. The shares are down about 30 per cent from late December when Toshiba revealed the eye-watering losses at Westinghouse.