TOKYO: Toshiba Corp. plans to hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting by year-end so that it can appoint the next chairman of its board, President and CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa said Thursday.

Toshiba aims to accelerate efforts to rebuild its governance and compliance systems after coming under fire for putting unfair pressure on some shareholders last year.

At the planned meeting, the Japanese technology giant will add outside members to its board, whose members decreased following a regular shareholders meeting in June this year. The new board chairman will be selected from among outside directors.

Toshiba is facing an urgent need to pick the new board chairman, the key post for corporate governance, which is being held provisionally by Tsunakawa.

At the June meeting, Toshiba shareholders rejected proposals to re-elect two board members, including board chairman Osamu Nagayama.

The number of Toshiba’s board thus fell to eight, though the company’s internal rules stipulate that its board have around 11 members.

On Thursday, Tsunakawa told a press conference that the post of board chairman should be held by a person who has served as CEO.

In October, a committee newly established by Toshiba to strengthen its governance will release measures to prevent any recurrence of similar shareholder problems.

The committee will conduct an investigation into Toshiba, based on the company’s acknowledgement of interference to prevent some shareholders from exercising their rights, Tsunakawa said.

His remark means that Toshiba broadly accepts the results of a probe report released in June by outside lawyers.

The report said that Toshiba had colluded with the industry ministry to prevent some shareholders from exercising their voting rights at a regular shareholders meeting in July last year.

Also on Thursday, Toshiba reported a group net profit of 17,996 million yen for April-June, against 11,348 million yen in loss a year before. Sales totaled 727,863 million yen, up 21.3 pct.

Toshiba returned to the black after it was hit hard by the novel coronavirus crisis last year.

JIJI Press