There are fresh concerns for troubled Olympus after the Tokyo stock exchange has warned that the company could be delisted after 62 years if it fails to report earnings by December 14th.
An earlier November 14th filing date had been issued, but Olympus said it was unlikely to meet this deadline, but was aiming to hit the November deadline.
The company admitted earlier in the week that there had been cover-ups going on at the company since 1990, which are currently under investigation by Japanese, British and American authorities. The Tokyo police are also thought to be looking into events.
In the space of just under a month, the value of Olympus stock has diminished by more than 80%, with experts claiming that the only future in the company lies with it being taken over.
Speaking to Reuters, CEO of investment expert Investrust Hiroyuki Fukunaga, said "It has lost a lot of capital but its business still has high value, potential investors can't consider buying out the businesses until all of the investigations are complete."
Supervisory
The Tokyo Stock Exchange has placed Olympus on a supervisory list, demanding the company report earnings by mid-December. Lawyers claim that if the third-party panel appointed by Olympus found that the company made accounting mis-statements, that delisting was almost inevitable.
More than $6.7billion has been wiped from the market value of Olympus since October 14th, when CEO Michael Woodford was fired from his job after just two weeks.
Olympus originally denied any wrongdoing, but finally revealed this week that it has used deals to hide investment losses, with the Nikkei newspaper claiming that these may have exceeded $1 billion.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg has reported that former Olympus officials could face as long as 10 years in prison if convictions for fraud, falsification of financial statements or aggravated breach of trust occur.
Keep following for more details on this story as they emerge.
Via Reuters
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