1 Toshiba future in doubt (BBC) Toshiba has filed
its delayed financial results, warning that the company's survival is at risk. "There
are material events and conditions that raise substantial doubt about the
company's ability to continue as a going concern," the company said in a
statement.
The electronics-to-construction giant reported a
loss of 532bn yen ($4.8bn) for April to December. However, the results have not
been approved by the firm's auditors. These latest financial results have
already been delayed twice and raise the possibility that Toshiba could be
delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Toshiba's president, Satoshi Tsunakawa, apologised
for the problems facing the firm and called the auditor's decision not to
approve the financial report as "truly regrettable". He said he hoped
the company would not be delisted.
Toshiba, originally known for its consumer
electronics products, has faced a series of difficulties. An accounting scandal,
uncovered in 2015, led to the resignation of several members of the firm's
senior management, including the chief executive, after the company was found
to have inflated the previous seven years' profits by $1.2bn.
Its problems came to a head again in January this
year, when it became clear its US nuclear unit, Westinghouse, was in financial
trouble. Westinghouse was put into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, which
protects it from creditors while it undergoes restructuring.
This week, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer
Foxconn was reported to be willing to pay up to $27bn for Toshiba's computer
chip business, a move which could help shore up the losses if it went ahead. But
that has not been enough to resolve Toshiba's difficulties.
2 IMF advises spending cuts for Bahrain (Gulf News) Bahrain
needs to make significant spending cuts to restore stability to its budget and
improve investor confidence as the smallest economy among Gulf Arab nations
tries to manage the impact of lower oil prices, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) said.
The Washington-based lender said the drop in crude
prices has largely offset “significant fiscal measures that were implemented,”
causing the budget deficit and public debt in 2016 to stand at 18 per cent and
82 per cent of gross domestic product, respectively.
Bahrain, a close Saudi Arabia ally and the home of
the US Fifth Fleet, has been more vulnerable to slumping oil prices than other
Gulf Cooperation Council states. The country’s 2016 budget deficit of 1.5
billion dinars ($4 billion), which is larger than its foreign exchange assets,
spurred the government to tap both domestic and international markets to fund
spending last year.
Economic growth is projected at 2.3 per cent in
2017, which will be “driven by strong infrastructure spending from GCC funds,”
the IMF said.
3 United stock dives after rough treatment of
passenger (Dominic Rushe & David Smith in The Guardian) The CEO of United
Airlines has issued a second public apology about the man who was forcibly
removed from a flight on Sunday, calling the incident “truly horrific”. “No one
should ever be mistreated this way,” Oscar Munoz wrote in a note to employees,
after video posted by fellow passengers showing police dragging the man off the
plane went viral.
Munoz was criticized after his official statement on
Monday described the violent removal as an effort to “re-accommodate”
passengers. He also described the man as “disruptive and belligerent”. As the
company’s share prices plunged on Tuesday, however, the executive turned
attention back on to the company.
Nearly $1bn of the company’s value was erased in
trading on Tuesday. The value of the carrier’s holding company, United
Continental Holdings, had fallen over 4% before noon, knocking almost a billion
dollars off its value.
The airline’s problems only seem to have escalated
since Sunday, when a man was violently removed from a flight by aviation police
officials at Chicago’s O’Hare international airport after refusing to volunteer
his seat on the overbooked flight. In one video clip, guards aggressively grab
then drag the passenger down the aisle of the plane as other passengers shout:
“Oh my God” and “Look what you did to him”.
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