TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Toshiba Corp stated Monday that they plan to hold an extraordinary general assembly of shareholders on March 24, where they will seek first approval to hive off their devices business.

While the vote for dissolution of the conglomerate, which is 146 years old, won’t take place until next season. However the meeting will serve as an important measure of shareholder support for its restructuring plan. Some foreign hedge funds have criticized the plan.

3D Investment Partners (Singapore-based) has also submitted a proposal. This request asks Toshiba to look into other options, solicit buyout offers from potential buyers, and explore private equity and alternative funding sources.

Toshiba proposes to seperate the power chip and hard disk drives business, revising an earlier plan that would have seen it split into three businesses – one to sell devices, another for infrastructure and energy, and another for Kioxia’s flash memory chips assets.

Toshiba’s privatization is seen by shareholders as an opportunity to make a greater profit, even for foreign investors who now hold nearly 30% of it.

Toshiba’s October-December quarter operating profit was 42.7 Billion yen (369.85 Million) on Monday. This is an increase of 20.9 Billion yen last year.

($1 = 115.3700 yen)