File Photo: Reuters.
Tokyo: Toshiba on Tuesday won approval to delay the release of its earnings for a second time, saying it needed more time to probe accounting fraud allegations at its loss-hit US nuclear unit.
Japanese financial regulators gave the company until April 11 to publish results for the October-December quarter, which were originally due in mid-February.
"An additional four weeks will be necessary to finalise the investigation," Toshiba said of the inquiry into its US atomic subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric.
The Tokyo-listed stock dived nearly nine percent in early afternoon trade, as news that Toshiba would not release its numbers Tuesday raised fears it could be yanked from Japan's premier stock exchange.
The green light from regulators pushing back the deadline eased concerns about an embarrassing delisting and Toshiba recovered to end Tuesday's session at 215.9 yen ($1.90), up 0.46 percent.
However, after markets closed, the bourse said Toshiba shares still risked being delisted unless the firm improves its internal controls.
Toshiba president Satoshi Tsunakawa is speaking to reporters at 4:00 pm local time (0700 GMT).
The crisis comes less than two years after Toshiba was hammered by a huge profit-padding scandal that badly damaged its reputation.
Investors "will be watching how the group plans to turn itself around and how quickly. They've been in a mess for years now so they need to act quickly," Mari Iwashita, chief market strategist at SMBC Friend Securities, told AFP.
Toshiba shares have been hammered this year, losing more than half their value since late December when it first warned of multi-billion-dollar losses at Westinghouse.
The firm also said a whistleblower complained that one or more Westinghouse executives exerted "inappropriate pressure" on its accounting.
On Tuesday, the firm hinted again it may try to sell off the troubled division, saying it wanted to "shut down the risks tied to the nuclear business overseas".
"(We) will review the position of Westinghouse in the Toshiba group," it added.
The company earlier warned it was on track to report a net loss of 390 billion yen in the fiscal year to March, as it faced a huge writedown topping 700 billion yen at Westinghouse.
The vast conglomerate -- which has about 188,000 employees globally and annual revenue topping 5.6 trillion yen -- once touted its overseas nuclear business as a future growth driver, filling a hole left after the 2011 Fukushima crisis slammed the brakes on new atomic projects in Japan.
But cost overruns have hit Westinghouse's finances hard.
Toshiba is now dramatically reducing its nuclear ambitions overseas and plans to stop building new atomic power plants, but said it will keep making related equipment.
In 2015, a separate high-profile investigation found that top Toshiba executives had pressured underlings to cover up weak results for years after the 2008 global financial crisis.
The cash-strapped company has since sold off a number of assets, including a medical devices unit and most of its home appliance business, while its prized memory chip business is now on the block.
