Toshiba under auditor threat

Toshiba, the 142-year-old conglomerate, warned yesterday it may not be able to continue as a going concern as it grapples with billions of dollars in losses from its Westinghouse Electric nuclear business.

The disclosure came as the Japanese company reported earnings for the third quarter after missing two previous deadlines for financial results.

Toshiba posted an operating loss of 576.3bn yen (€4.9bn) for the nine months to the end of December and said it had negative shareholders’ equity of 225.6bn yen (€1.93bn), but, significantly, it was not able to get auditor PwC Aarata to approve those figures.