Hindustantimes.com May 25, 2002
Japan Inc to suffer its first ever net loss: Survey AFP Tokyo , 25-05-2002 Japanese listed firms are expected to suffer a combined net loss for the fiscal year ended March 2002, the first time corporate Japan bled red ink as a whole, according to a survey released on Saturday. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun curried out the survey covering 1,416 publicly traded firms, or 78 per cent of the total, which have already announced their earnings results for the last fiscal year. The poll excluded financial firms and those listed on the three stock markets for emerging firms, the business daily said. According to the survey, 30 per cent of the companies in Japan are posting losses due to the information technology slump and losses stemming from restructuring measures. The aggregate group net loss of the surveyed firms came to 131 billion yen ($1.05 billion), compared with a profit of 6,118 billion yen for the previous fiscal year. Because ailing general contractors are set to release their fiscal 2001 earnings next week, the earnings for all the listed firms are likely to reach several hundred billion yen in group net loss, it said. Manufacturers suffered a 96 per cent plunge in group net profit last fiscal year due to the introduction of fair-value accounting, which has forced them to book paper losses on securities holdings. The decline was also due to weak demand for information technology products, it said. Non-manufacturers ended up with a 300 billion yen group net loss compared with a profit of 2,155 billion yen a year earlier. For the current fiscal year, the companies surveyed forecast a return to the black with a profit of 8,601 billion yen. Send your feedback at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ©Hindustan Times Ltd. 1997. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission.
