TEPCO staff along with SDF forces, police and firefighters at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant are making heroic efforts to get the radiation leakages under control. But they are being let down by the leadership of TEPCO. And the performance of their President Masataka Shimizu has particularly come in for much criticism.
The company’s stock price dropped 18 % today as shares reached their lowest level in 47 years. TEPCO has dropped to about 20% of the value it had a few weeks ago. The total liabilities that TEPCO may have to face are a long way ftom being known and could exceed $25 billion. As a corporation they could not survive and the Japanese government is considering the nationalisation of just the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant as well as the nationalisation of the entire company as possible options. In any event there is little chance of the current stock holders of TEPCO ever getting any return or even of holding on to any significant value in their ownership.
Speculation is growing that the Japanese government may start talks to nationalise Tokyo Electric Power, which owns the Fukushima nuclear plant.
The company has said it will need to raise about $25bn (£15.6bn) to shore up its finances. The talk of Tepco being nationalised has been fuelled by a statement from cabinet minister Koichiro Gemba to the Reuters news agency that a discussion about bailing out Tepco was possible.
But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government was not currently considering a nationalisation. “Although details cannot be seen such as how exactly the government is going to nationalise the company, as long as there are concerns that Tepco may be nationalised, investors don’t want to hold the stock,” said Hajime Nakajima of Cosmo Securities.
On Tuesday a flood of sell orders caused Tepco shares to stop being traded temporarily. A day earlier, the shares dropped to their lowest level in three decades.
Tepco shares have dropped to 566 Yen from a 52 week high of 2,500 Yen.
related: TEPCO was ready to give up and abdicate on 14th March
The k2p blog 