Toshiba to buy Shaw’s share of Westinghouse

Toshiba Corp. announced Wednesday it will buy out Shaw Group Inc.’s 20 percent stake in Westinghouse Electric Co. for about $1.6 billion by January, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Toshiba already owns 67 percent of Westinghouse, a nuclear power plant specialist.

In September 2011, Shaw announced it planned to sell its piece of Westinghouse to Toshiba, a move designed to clear around $1.7 billion in debt from the Baton Rouge-based company’s books.

Shaw and Toshiba bought Westinghouse in 2006. Toshiba paid about $4.2 billion for 77 percent of Westinghouse, while Shaw issued $1.1 billion in yen-backed bonds to buy its piece. But with the yen’s increasing strength against the dollar, Shaw’s original debt ballooned to around $1.7 billion last year.

The Westinghouse deal included an option that allowed Shaw to sell its share of Westinghouse to Toshiba between March 2010 and March 2013.