A consortium led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) gained 78.65% of Toshiba through a tender offer, Toshiba said, coming a step closer to completing a $14 billion deal to take the company private.
Ownership of more than a two-third majority would be enough for the JIP group to squeeze out remaining shareholders. Toshiba is now set to be delisted as early as December, ending its 74-year history as a listed firm.
The deal puts the electronics-to-power stations maker in domestic hands after years of battles with overseas activist shareholders.
JIP is joined by some 20 Japanese companies, including financial services firm Orix and chipmaker Rohm.
Toshiba in March accepted JIP's buyout offer valuing the industrial conglomerate at 2 trillion yen ($13.5 billion), with no prospects of a higher offer or competing bid, even though the 4,620 yen per share offer price was considered by some as unsatisfactory.
"We are deeply grateful to many of our shareholders for being understanding of the company's position," Toshiba Chief Executive Taro Shimada said in a statement on Thursday. Toshiba "will now take a major step toward a new future with a new shareholder".
Since 2015, Toshiba has been battered by accounting scandals, suffered heavy loss and came close to being delisted. It has also been engulfed in a series of corporate governance scandals.
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