Toshiba to sell air-conditioner business, in prelude to restructuring

Toshiba Corp said on Monday it will sell almost all of its 60% stake in its air conditioning unit to its U.S. joint venture partner for $870 million, ahead of an expected rejig of a turnaround plan that has rankled investors.

It will sell 55% of Toshiba Carrier to Carrier Global Corp for around 100 billion yen ($870 million), retaining a 5% stake. The deal is expected to be prelude to a more far-reaching restructuring of the conglomerate to be announced on Monday, when Toshiba starts a two-day "investor day".

Toshiba is set to announce a plan to split into two companies, not three, at the event and will likely see angry pushback from foreign shareholders.

Toshiba management will brief investors on the break-up plan, take questions and give details on individual businesses.

The company said on Friday it was considering splitting in half.

Under the new plan, Toshiba would split off its device business, including the power chip unit. Previously it had aimed to split into three companies: one for energy and infrastructure, one for devices and one for flash memory chips.

The two-way split would save costs compared to a more complicated three-way break-up, although some investors suspect the new plan is designed to allow Toshiba to avoid a shareholder vote that would have required two-thirds approval.