Tepco shares plunge on nationalisation fears
Shares in nuclear crisis-hit Tokyo Electric Power Co fell 25 per cent last night after the head of the Tokyo Stock Exchange suggested it might be delisted and restructured.
Atsushi Saito, the exchange’s chief executive, said the utility, which owns the Fukishima Daiichi nuclear power plant, should be nationalised temporarily to recover from the losses incurred since the earthquake and tsunami in March.
Saito was quoted in a Japanese magazine as saying Tepco should be treated like Japan Airlines, which underwent a court-led restructuring last year after filing for bankruptcy.
It would be good if Tepco could be handled in the same way as JAL,” Saito was quoted as saying in an interview with Asahi Judiciary, an online magazine owned by the Asahi newspaper.
He added that Japan’s government should adopt a clear set of rules to handle the utility just as it did with troubled banks during Japan’s financial crisis in late 1990s.
“For Tepco too, the government should make a special law. It should do a thorough investigation of its assets and if its liabilities exceed its assets then it should be nationalised temporarily and its assets should be reorganised,” he said.
“Banks and other creditors should be asked to forgive loans to a certain degree. During this process, the sale of grids and nationalisation of nuclear plants might be considered,” he said.
“If the company gets delisted as a result, then that just has to be accepted. It can relist as a good power generating company some years later.”
Japanese authorities have consistently said that Tepco, the operator of the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, should remain both solvent and listed.
Tepco’s stock dived 24 per cent to 218 yen (£1.65), falling at one point by its daily limit to a lifetime low of 206 yen. Stocks in banks, big lenders and holders of its shares, also fell on his comments.
The Tokyo bourse said has no authority to delist Tepco as long as its financial statements are in order and that Saito was just expressing his personal opinion.