Bain Capital buying Toshiba could be a big deal for Japan

TOSHIBA WAS once synonymous with Japan’s industrial might. Of late the conglomerate, which has made everything from memory cards to nuclear reactors, has become a byword for drama. Japan’s business press writes of “Toshiba Theatre”, which began with accounting fraud a decade ago and has continued to the present day in a series of “slapstick” struggles between management and shareholders. Toshiba’s share price has underperformed domestic and foreign rivals, as well as the broader Japanese stockmarket (see chart).The latest plot twist comes amid talk of a buy-out led by Bain Capital, an American private-equity group. This raised hopes among investors for some sort of resolution to the saga. Toshiba’s market value has risen by a quarter in the past month.