Olympus or sell assets to repay 3.4 billion of dollars in debt

Sina Science and technology news Beijing time November 17 afternoon, according to the Nikkei industry news report, in order to continue to obtain the support of banks, Olympus may sell assets to repay 3.4 billion of dollars in debt.　　The bank's support is critical because Olympus has a high leverage and may be able to write down large sums of assets after revising its accounts.　　Nippon Life Ping, the largest shareholder of Olympus, has reduced its stake in the company, but still said in Thursday that it would continue to support the company, which is mired in financial scandals. Olympus is facing investigations by police, prosecutors and regulators this month after acknowledging decades of losses through sky-high consultancy fees.　　Japan's life insurance has lowered its stake in Olympus from 8.18% to 5.11% per cent, but will still support the company. Akira Tsuzuki, Japan's life insurance executive, said: "Our basic position is that we will still support Olympus because of its excellent technical strength in its core business and the public interest."　　Olympus has 40,000 employees and is the leading manufacturer of the global endoscope industry, and its optical technology also has a decent strength. When Olympus spent $2.2 billion in 2008 to buy British medical equipment company Gyrus, it paid a hefty fee of $687 million to the advisory body.　　According to statistics, this is the highest proportion of the history of mergers and acquisitions advisory fees. Olympus's share price has fallen by 70% since the scandal was revealed last month.　　The unit rose in volume in Thursday, with a gain of 18%. Debt relief according to the Nikkei industry news report, Olympus could sell assets to repay 3.4 billion of billions of dollars in order to continue to gain support from banks.　　The bank's support is critical because Olympus has a high leverage and may be able to write down large sums of assets after revising its accounts. In a meeting with creditors in Wednesday, Olympus filed a debt-relief proposal that would cut some 260 billion trillion yen (about $3.4 billion trillion) of debt over the next 3 years, according to the Nikkei industry news.　　The report quoted a senior banker as saying that Olympus would not immediately suffer from a shortage of funds. While its executives may face criminal charges over financial scandals, investors expect the company to avoid the fate of the city.　　SMBC Friend Nomura strategist Fumiyuki Nakanishi, a Japanese securities firm, said the bank was both a major shareholder of Olympus and a creditor of Olympus, and that the delisting would be bad for them, as it would lead to the value of their Olympus shares to zero. "Banks are big shareholders of Olympus, and if the company's stock turns into waste paper, they will be implicated." "Fumiyuki Nakanishi said.　　He also noted that Olympus had to issue a semi-annual report before the December deadline. He said: "If Olympus could submit it before December 14,Earnings, and without further uncertainty, the market would argue that the stock would not be excluded from the Nikkei 225 index or delisted, and that it would continue to rise. "The exit crisis, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has placed Olympus on the watch list, which could be a prelude to its retreat," he said. If the company is unable to release its earnings before December 14, it will automatically retire.　　But even if the report is submitted on time, the Tokyo Stock Exchange can still force it to retire according to the level of non-compliance.　　But people familiar with the matter said the Japanese securities regulator might advise Olympus to pay fines to avoid the fate of the city. "Agencies and funds are selling Olympus shares, but as long as the company is able to avoid delisting, hedge funds and speculators will buy the shares and seek short-term profits," said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of Jujiya Nomura trading at the Japanese securities firm.　　But he added that if there were indications that the company could not deliver its earnings by the deadline, "the trend could be reversed quickly".　　According to the Nikkei industry news, Olympus told creditors that the company is expected to achieve operating profit of 35.6 billion yen (about 460 million U.S. dollars) in the fiscal year up to March 2012, much lower than the 50 billion yen forecast for August this year, but roughly unchanged from the same period last year.　　However, some experts said that in the previous case, Olympus is very difficult to avoid the fate of the city.　　Creditor support Although the panel of independent experts is still investigating Olympus's financial scandals, the Nikkei industry news says Olympus has said to creditors that the company's acquisition cost of gyrus in the 2010 fiscal year will be 33.4 billion yen (about $434 million). About 100 bankers attended the Wednesday meeting.　　According to people familiar with the matter, two major creditors said they would continue to support Olympus, namely Mitsui Sumitomo and Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Bank. By the end of March this year, Olympus's interest-bearing debt was about 650 billion yen (about $8.45 billion). According to people familiar with the matter, the two major banks have issued a total of 400 billion yen loans to the company. In addition, Olympus's syndicated loans (syndicated loans) amounted to 100 billion yen. (Ding Macro)