Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday it will buy back about ¥700 billion ($6.3 billion) worth of its own shares as a way of returning to investors a portion of profits gleaned from selling off its chip subsidiary.
The move will be one of the largest stock buyback programs since 2000, according to the Daiwa Institute of Research think tank. Toshiba shares soared around 10 percent at one point on the Tokyo Stock Exchange following the announcement.
On June 1, the company completed the sale of its profitable chip unit, Toshiba Memory Corp., to a Japan-U.S.-South Korean consortium for ¥2 trillion. The move was made in an effort to raise cash to bolster its financial standing in the wake of massive losses incurred at its former U.S. nuclear subsidiary.