Westinghouse files for bankruptcy

Tokyo, March 29 

Toshiba Corp’s US nuclear unit Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on Wednesday, just three months after huge cost overruns were flagged, as the Japanese parent seeks to limit losses that threaten its future.

Westinghouse, which Toshiba acquired a decade ago, has nuclear projects in varying degrees of development in India, the UK and China. The US unit said its operations in Asia, Europe, the Middle-East and Africa would not be impacted by the filing.

Bankruptcy will allow Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse to renegotiate or even break its construction contracts, though the utilities that own the projects could seek damages. 

For Toshiba, the aim is to fence off soaring liabilities and keep the group afloat. Toshiba said Westinghouse-related liabilities totalled $9.8 billion as of December, making it one of the industry’s most costly collapses to date; it had earlier estimated writedowns would swell to $6.3 billion.

Toshiba said as a result it expected to book a net loss of 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) for the year ending in March, one of the biggest annual losses for a Japanese company ever. — Reuters