PE fund Japan Industrial Partners has successfully made a 2 trillion Japanese yen (about US$13.5 billion) takeover bid for Toshiba, which will end the industrial giant's 74-year history as a listed company.

The consortium led by the PE fund JIP now owns a significant 78.65% stake in Toshiba, paving the way for the domestic fund to acquire the remaining shares and gain full control of the company. The move marks a significant milestone in Toshiba's 148-year history, which has been marred by a series of challenges over the past decade. For the acquisition to be considered successful, more than two-thirds of the shares had to be acquired. The move to the private market will free Toshiba from dealing with foreign activist investors and allow it to focus more on trying to turn its fortunes around.

However, whether Toshiba will actually manage to overcome its problems and regain its status as a leading Japanese company along with its competitiveness remains uncertain. Toshiba's revenues have dropped significantly from a peak of over JPY7.6 trillion in the fiscal year beginning April 2007 to JPY3.4 trillion in fiscal 2022. The company's decline began in 2015 when accounting irregularities were revealed, which inflated profits by hundreds of billions of yen over seven years. The scandal led to the resignation of the then president and several directors and raised serious concerns about the company's management.

In 2017, the company posted significant losses at its US nuclear power business Westinghouse, which led to a JPY700 billion write-down, and in 2018 sold the business to Canadian company Brookfield for USD4.6 billion. To avoid bankruptcy, Toshiba sold its valuable PE memory chip division to Bain Capital in the same year. Since then, Toshiba has received several takeover offers, including one from UK PE group CVC Capital Partners in 2021, which it rejected.