Zurich, Thursday May 14, 2015
Sharp Corporation has always enjoyed a high reputation for the quality of its products. Once the successfully Osaka-based company hurts Kansai region and falls on hard times. The company is considering reducing its capital substantially to put itself into the tax category of “small- and medium-size companies” to ease its tax burden.
The struggling electronics maker plans to cut its capital from the current ¥120 billion ($1 billion) to ¥100 million or less, the corporate tax threshold for small- and medium-size companies, according to the Japanese sources. This decision, which is very unusual forcompanies like Sharp, which has consolidated sales of nearly ¥3 trillion, has been largely endorsed by its creditor banks.
The redeemed capital , which would help Sharp wipe out its accumulated losses, will be proposed at a general shareholders’ meeting in June, according to company’s declarations. The plan has been announced today along with the company’s latest earnings report and its new medium-term management program, according to the sources.
Unlike in the case of 100 percent capital reductions by bankrupt firms, the 99 percent reduction eyed by Sharp will keep shareholders’ voting rights intact.
Sharp is likely to have a net loss of about ¥200 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March, with the loss expected to continue in 2015. The company is facing extensive restructuring measures, including a cut of some 5000 jobs in Japan and abroad as well as plant closures.
Sharp has effectively gotten the green light to receive ¥200 billion in financial support from its two main creditor banks — Mizuho Bank and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ — and is also planning to receive ¥25 billion from a corporate reconstruction fund that the two banks have invested in, according to sources close to the matter.Sharp Corp. posted a full-year loss that was wider than expected as the debt-saddled display maker for Apple Inc. cut jobs and received financial support from its main lenders.
The company reported a net loss of 222.4 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in the year ended March 31, according to a statement released Thursday. That compares with the 30.7 billion-yen average estimated loss.
The company, once a paradigmal for the sector with cutting-edge TVs and home electronics, has struggled under its debt to keep up with rivals diversifying into software and content businesses. Sharp, which went to the brink of bankruptcy in 2012, received a lifeline from lenders under very tough condition.
Neither the company’s Aquos smartphones nor its TVs are among the top 10 sellers globally by units, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Source: