“A Friday report from NHK, Japan’s public broadcasting company, announced that Apple might join Foxconn in a coordinated bid for a majority stake in Toshiba, the world’s second largest supplier of flash memory chips,” Rod Adams writes for Forbes. “If the move results in a successful investment bid, it could have a major positive impact on electricity customers in Georgia and South Carolina. It might also help fund a recovery path out of a fraught attempt by the U.S. nuclear energy enterprise to restore its atrophied capability to build large, reliable, emission-free nuclear plants in the United States.”
“Several years ago Toshiba, as Westinghouse’s large, profitable and then stable parent company, provided substantial guarantees in the case of cost overruns for both the Vogtle and Summer projects,” Adams writes. “Each of those projects, one in Georgia and one in South Carolina involves the construction of two of Westinghouse’s flagship AP1000 nuclear power plants. According to recent document filings, the total amount of Toshiba’s guarantees is about $4 billion.”
“A few billion more dollars in capital reserves for Toshiba from an Apple/Foxconn investment would not solve all of the difficult challenges that still face the people who are working hard to find a way to complete Vogtle and Summer,” Adams writes. “A better capitalized parent company, however, could turn an impossible situation into one that is merely difficult.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The ancillary ripples these sort of mega deals can create is interesting.
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Apple may bid for big stake in Toshiba – April 17, 2017