Toshiba posts $318m annual loss

Tokyo

Toshiba said yesterday it would book a $318 million annual loss to account for a billion dollar profit-padding scandal that hammered the reputation of one of Japan’s best-known firms.

The vast 140-year-old conglomerate revised its results for the past fiscal year to March 2015, booking a 37.8bn yen ($318 million) net loss that reversed a previously expected 120bn yen annual profit.

Toshiba’s new president Masashi Muromachi said the company, which sells everything from vacuum cleaners to nuclear reactors, would restructure certain divisions and overhaul a corporate culture fixated on profits at any cost.

“We have caused tremendous problems for investors at home and abroad,” he said.