Toshiba chairman quits as losses loom

Toshiba chairman Shigenori Shiga has resigned, hours after the company was forced to delay revealing details of a multi-billion dollar loss.

The Japanese conglomerate was expected to say it was writing off about $6bn (£4.8bn) at its US nuclear business.

But the BBC understands Toshiba has not been able to agree with its auditors how big the writedown should be.

The company said Mr Shiga was stepping down "to take management responsibility for the loss".

He will remain on the board until June to help deal with the fallout of the problems, Toshiba said.

The financial chaos has led some analysts to warn the company's future is at risk.

Toshiba has asked regulators for an extra month before issuing its earnings report - which will include the size of the loss and details of measures it plans to take to tackle its finances.

Shares fell by as much as 9% on Tuesday and have lost about 50% since late December, when it first warned about the extent of the problems.

Chip deal

The losses are linked to a deal done by its US subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric, when it bought a nuclear construction and services business from Chicago Bridge & Iron in 2015.

Assets that it took on are likely to be worth less than initially thought, and there is also a dispute about payments that are due.

It has already announced plans to sell off part of its profitable memory chip business to raise funds. It is the second largest chip maker in the world, behind Samsung.

The company is still struggling to recover after it emerged in 2015 that profits had been overstated for seven years, prompting the chief executive to resign.

UK nuclear plant in limbo

As well as detailing its losses, Toshiba is also widely predicted to announce it is scaling back its global nuclear business - and possibly getting out of the sector altogether, apart from its operations in Japan.

Among the projects that would affect heavily is a planned new power plant in Cumbria in the UK.

Toshiba has a 60% stake in Nugen, the company which has the contract to build the plant.

Should the Japanese company pull out of the project, the UK would have to look for other backers to step in, with South Korea's Kepco a likely candidate.

Any changes to the current plans are expected to seriously delay the project, thought to eventually provide as much as 7% of the UK's energy needs.