Japanese electronics company Toshiba has said it’s swung to a profit in its April-June quarter. The earnings report came as the firm kept trying to turn the page on an embarrassing accounting scam.
Toshiba said Friday costs cuts and the sale of its home appliances business had enabled it to book a net profit of $780 million (699 million euros) in the quarter to the end of June, reversing a huge loss in the same period a year earlier.

Once a proud pillar of corporate Japan, Toshiba has been besieged by problems, most notably a profit-padding scandal in which executives for years systematically pushed subordinates to cover up weak financial results.

Best known for its TV sets and other electronic devices, the company’s vast business was dented by the 2008 global financial crisis, while the 2011 Fukushima disaster impacted demand for nuclear power at home in a big blow to Toshiba’s key atomic division.

Is the worst over?

Back then, top mangers complained about “shameful results” that could not be made public. A company-hired panel in 2015 found out about the years-long scheme to hide poor results.

Japan’s national pension fund is among the angry investors suing Toshiba, which has seen its stock shed some 40 percent of its value in the wake of the scandal.

On Friday, though, shares jumped by some 4 percent in Tokyo on the latest earnings report in which the company also stuck to its full-year forecasts with regard to both profit and sales.

hg/jd/ (Reuters, AFP)