Toshiba Plans to Cut 7,000 jobs Within Five Years to Launches Group Rebuilding

The boss of struggling Toshiba said on Thursday he would cut 7,000 jobs over the next five years as the Japanese engineering firm pulled out of foreign investments and downgraded its annual profit forecasts. “Over the next five years, we expect a reduction of 7,000 jobs,” many coming from early retirement, CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani told reporters in Tokyo.

itment by Japan’s Toshiba group to complete reconstruction within five years.

The Company announced on Tuesday includes the cancellation of “non-priority” businesses such as Toshiba’s UK nuclear power plant and US liquefied petroleum gas.

Toshiba will close its UK plant NuGeneration early next year after failing to find a buyer for the deal. The US business has not been sold, but Toshiba is expected to lose 93 billion yen ($816 million).

Meanwhile, Toshiba plans to buy back up to 40 per cent of its shares as a long-term goal of increasing dividends, which is good news for shareholders anyway.

The former Japanese behemoth is going through a sweeping reform effort to revive itself following its disastrous acquisition of US nuclear energy firm Westinghouse, which racked up billions of dollars in losses before being placed under bankruptcy protection.

For the year to March 2019, the firm said it expected a net profit of 920 billion yen (USD 8.1 billion), down from an earlier projection of 1,070 billion yen. Annual operating profit outlook is now 60 billion yen, down from a previous 70 billion yen forecast, while the sales estimates were kept at 3,600 billion yen.

Since it was Mired in an operating crisis over a 2015 accounting scandal, Toshiba has had to sell assets such as its memory chip business and the US nuclear power division.