(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Just over a week out from revelations of a cheating scandal that plunged Kobe Steel Ltd in crisis and ensnared hundreds of firms, the embattled steelmaker's shares skidded to five-year lows yesterday as investors worried about the financial and legal fallout.
Kobe Steel chief executive Hiroya Kawasaki on Friday said about 500 companies had received its falsely certified products, more than double its earlier count, confirming widespread wrongdoing at the steelmaker.
Shares of Japan's third-biggest steelmaker hit ¥774.0 in the morning, the lowest since December 11, 2012.
They managed to recover and rise 2.7% by the close to ¥827, but remain well off the pre-crisis level of ¥1,368.
The broader Tokyo stock market ended 0.47%, touching a 21-year high.
No safety problems have surfaced as the Japanese steelmaker attempts to get a grip on the data tampering that it earlier said may go back as far as ten years.
The revelations over the past week rippled through supply chains across the world as companies from operators of Japan's famous bullet trains to the world's biggest aircraft maker, Boeing Co, were ensnared in the scandal. The company's finances could come under increasing pressure as Kawasaki has promised to compensate customers for any costs arising from replacements.
Kobe Steel is forecasting profit of ¥35bn ($313mn) in the year through March 2018, after two annual losses, mostly recently because of falling margins in its steel business and a one-off loss related to its China construction machinery unit.
Sales are forecast to rise a bit more than 10% to ¥1.88tn.
The company is forecasting a third year of negative free cash flow, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
Kobe Steel has been investing in upgrading facilities in the area most hard hit by the revelations, its aluminium business, as it tries to diversify away from the steel business.
The company said in May it plans to spend ¥55bn to expand its aluminium business to meet rising demand for carmakers that are turning to the lighter metal to meet stricter environmental rules.
While the immediate impact from the cheating scandal exposes 500 companies to potential safety issues, Kobe Steel's total client base is far larger.
In Japan alone, more than 6,100 companies deal with the company, according to credit research firm Teikoku Databank.
The majority of these firms, 56%, are the small to medium enterprises which make up the backbone of Japan's economy.
'Many of the big Japanese companies have been struggling to cope with fast-changing society, especially without strong leadership of managers to steer it around to a new phase of growth, a fund manager at an independent asset management firm in Japan said.
His firm, which focuses on growth companies, does not own shares in Kobe Steel.
Japanese companies are run by managers who have moved up through corporate bureaucracy, he said, adding that these managers tend not to take big risk during their terms of about 4-6 years.
The scale of the misconduct at the steelmaker hammered its shares as investors, worried about the financial impact and legal fallout, wiped about $1.8bn off its market value last week.
Kobe Steel said the problems had gone beyond the borders of Japan with data falsification found in subsidiaries in Thailand, China and Malaysia.
Kobe Steel initially said on October 8, 200 companies were affected when it admitted at the weekend it had falsified data about the quality of aluminium and copper products used in cars, aircraft, space rockets and defence equipment.
The recent misconduct also seems to be part of a pattern at the steelmaker.
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