CRANBERRY TWP — In a highly-anticipated move, Westinghouse Electric announced early this morning that it had filed voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions in a federal-district court in New York.

“Today, we have taken action to put Westinghouse on the path to resolve our ... financial challenges while protecting our core business,” interim President and CEO Jose Emeterio Gutierrez said in a news release. “We are focused on developing a plan of reorganization to emerge from Chapter 11 as a stronger company while continuing to be a global nuclear technology leader.”

The filing by Westinghouse — which said it is seeking to undertake a “strategic restructuring” and has obtained $800 million in financing from third-party lenders to protect its core businesses during the process — comes as its parent company, Japan-based Toshiba Corp., struggles to remain viable amid multi-billion-dollar losses.

The Associated Press reported that the move by Westinghouse had received approval from Toshiba’s board of directors in Tokyo this morning.

Losses, delays

The filing would help protect Westinghouse’s parent company from the financial fallout of troubled nuclear power plant construction projects in Georgia and South Carolina — the driving factors in a $9.9 billion loss Toshiba is expected to book for its current fiscal year, which ends Friday.

Toshiba has said Westinghouse’s troubled finances are almost entirely responsible for that loss. But lost profits aren’t the company’s only problem.

The company has delayed publishing its third-quarter earnings report twice, in part because of an investigation into whether certain Westinghouse executives exerted “improper pressure” during the 2015 acquisition of nuclear construction firm Stone & Webster from Chicago Ridge and Iron.

That acquisition was supposed to jump-start Toshiba’s nuclear expansion. Instead it became the subject of lawsuits, delays and cost increases for the South Carolina and Georgia projects.

Toshiba President Staoshi Tsunakawa said in February that the company expected to book a $6.3 billion write-down to Westinghouse’s value. Tsunakawa has said Toshiba will sell a majority stake in its lucrative flash memory business, as well as portions of its other holdings, to underwrite that move.

Sale uncertainty

Westinghouse, which was purchased by Toshiba in 2006 for $5.4 billion, is also operating under considerable uncertainty. Once the center of Toshiba’s push to diversify and take on what seemed to be a burgeoning nuclear power industry, the Cranbery Township-based firm is now facing the possibility of being sold off. Earlier this month Tsunakawa spoke openly about exploring the sale of Westinghouse, and Toshiba posted an investor presentation on its website outlining its future without Westinghouse in its portfolio.

Westinghouse responded by saying Tsunakawa’s statements hadn’t changed the company’s day-to-day operations, and that its “base business” — fuel and services — remained strong.

Regional anxiety

Still, the uncertainty surrounding its future has sewn anxiety in both employees and officials throughout the region. Westinghouse employs more than 2,200 people at its Cranberry Township headquarters, and 4,500 in the region.

Cranberry Township and Butler County officials have taken an especially pointed interest in the company’s future. In February township manager Jerry Andree called a meeting that included county commissioners, development experts and regional chambers of commerce. The group discussed a worst-case scenario — Westinghouse leaving the township completely — and how they might address such a scenario.

Andree and others involved in the gathering later said that it wasn’t intended to be predictive, and did not indicate what they believed the company’s ultimate fate would be.

As news broke earlier this month of Toshiba’s willingness to sell Westinghouse, Andree and development experts said they remained confident in the company’s future in Butler County.

‘Business continuity’

Westinghouse, in a news release announcing its bankruptcy filing, committed to completing its current nuclear construction projects, and said its operations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa won’t be affected by the Chapter 11 filings.

The company also said it had entered court filings to “ensure business continuity through payment of employee salaries, wages and benefits, as well as pay its suppliers for the delivery of services.”

Eagle staff writer Phillip Rau contributed to this report.