TOKYO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Troubled Japanese tech giant Toshiba said on Friday that its shares will be demoted from the main section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) from August as its liabilities had exceeded its assets by the end of fiscal 2016.
The company, having yet to submit its full year financial statement, said that it expects its negative net worth for the year ended March to reach 581.6 billion yen (5.23 billion U.S. dollars), exceeding the earlier estimate of 540 billion yen.
The Japanese conglomerate is to be degraded to the second section of the Tokyo bourse from August and would face delisting if it could not eliminate its negative net worth by the end of fiscal 2017 which runs through next March, according to the TSE.
Toshiba's shares were placed on a "securities on alert" watchlist by the TSE in September 2015, following an accounting scandal, which had initially dented the company's reputation.
Between 2008 and 2014 the multinational conglomerate was involved in padding its profits by 152 billion yen, leading to its chief, and half of its board resigning.
The firm was subsequently fined an unprecedented 60 million U.S. dollars.
The company has also been troubled by huge losses related to its U.S. unit Westinghouse Electric Co. which filed for bankruptcy in March.
Toshiba has been trying to sell its prized memory-chip unit to bolster its financial position and said it expects to reach an agreement by June 28 to coincide with its shareholders' meeting.
Toshiba's joint chip partner, Western Digital Corp., however, has said the sale of the chip unit without its consent is in breach of their joint venture.
