Tokyo - Toshiba could post a much larger loss than previously
expected on its nuclear power business in the US, Japanese media
reported on Thursday.
Toshiba could post a loss of up to 700 billion yen (6.1 billion
dollars), much more than the 500 billion yen it had predicted in late
December, the Kyodo News agency reported, citing unnamed sources.
Costs related to the construction of nuclear reactors had also likely
ballooned, Kyodo added.
Toshiba were forced as a result to seek financial assistance from a
state-owned lender, the report said.
Toshiba said in a statement that Thursday's media reports were not
based on any announcements by the company.
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A Toshiba spokesman declined to comment on whether the company had
sought financial help from the state-owned Development Bank of Japan
(DBJ).
Toshiba was hoping to receive support from major creditor banks and
the DBJ, the Kyodo report said.
Toshiba has suffered a setback in its nuclear business at home and
abroad since Japan's worst atomic disaster, at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant, triggered by a powerful earthquake and ensuing
tsunami in March 2011.
In the financial year ending in March 2016, Toshiba suffered a record
net loss of 460 billion yen as it was forced to undergo restructuring
in the wake of a major accounting scandal.
The company admitted it had inflated profits over seven years.