Bain preparing to relist Toshiba on Stock Exchange in three years

A consortium led by Bain Capital is preparing to have to relist Toshiba’s chip unit should it fail to complete the takeover by March next year. The two parties reached an $18 billion agreement last week, however the final negotiations are said to take around six months, which would put Toshiba’s listed status in jeopardy.

According to Reuters, Bain is already preparing for that eventuality and is aiming to relist Toshiba’s chip unit in three years to ‘cash in on investment’. Bain is also hoping to resolve legal disputes with Western Digital before the end of the year. In its bid to tie up the contracts before March, Bain filed for antitrust approval in China the day after signing, according to Reuters’ sources.

Western Digital is seeking an injunction to block any deal that does not have its consent. Western Digital’s attempts to block the deal shouldn’t come as a surprise though. Western Digital says that it has legal rights to block any deal made without its consent. An independent arbitration panel is set to be formed in the coming days, and an injunction could come later this year. A final ruling isn’t expected until at least 2019. 

Western Digital’s apparent stubbornness stems from its $16 billion acquisition of SanDisk last year. SanDisk had been a joint venture partner with Toshiba since 2000. In a similar act, Western Digital last week filed an arbitration request to stop Toshiba from investing in a new chip facility unle SanDisk was also allowed to invest. 

In the first news conference since the signing, Yuji Sugimoto, head of Bain Capital in Japan, told reporters on Thursday that Bain hopes to achieve stability at the chip unit through contracts with Apple Inc, a major client and member of the consortium.