Westinghouse will emerge from bankruptcy protection “very soon” but its future ownership remains shrouded in doubt as Toshiba mulls a potential sale of its US nuclear business. José Gutiérrez, chief executive of Westinghouse, said the company “was in a much better situation” than many people imagined and hoped to emerge from the US Chapter 11 process once a restructuring plan was agreed “in the next few months”. However, he acknowledged that Toshiba must first decide what it wants to do with the company, with options including a sale of the whole business or parts of it. Toshiba has said it is “actively considering” a sale of Westinghouse as it battles to prevent the business from dragging down the rest of the Japanese conglomerate. Analysts say political barriers will narrow down an already limited field of potential buyers, with Chinese and Russian companies almost certainly unacceptable to Washington. Europe’s biggest nuclear companies, Areva and EDF of France, are facing their own financial turmoil and competitors such as General Electric in the US, Hitachi in Japan and Kepco in South Korea are not rushing to rescue their rival.
FT 17th Sept 2017 read more »
