Olympus Corp.'s revised financial statement for the fiscal year that ended in March will decrease its net assets by 30 billion yen ($390 million), but will avoid a state of excess liabilities, sources said.
The company, which has concealed losses on stock transactions for years, initially listed 166.8 billion yen in net assets on a consolidated basis for that year. The revised statement to be submitted next month will list 130 billion yen in net assets, the sources said.
Olympus is planning to revise its financial statements for the past decade or so and submit corrected statements for the five most recent fiscal years to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau by Dec. 14. If the camera and medical equipment manufacturer fails to submit those statements, it faces delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Staying clear of the condition of excess liabilities would be in Olympus' favor when the TSE decides on whether to allow the company's stock to remain listed.
According to sources, Olympus piled up about 130 billion yen in losses from various financial transactions made during the asset-inflated economy from the 1980s. After new accounting rules were introduced from the fiscal year ending in March 2001 that required companies to report losses based on the market value of assets, Olympus executives decided to conceal those losses.
Some of those losses were covered through funds redirected in relation to the acquisition of companies, but about 30 billion yen in past losses still have not been formally recorded on the company's financial statements.
When Olympus acquired British medical equipment company Gyrus Group Ltd. in 2008, some of that 30 billion yen was still recorded as "assets" in Olympus' financial statements. However, those funds actually went to cover pass losses through an investment fund registered in the Cayman Islands.
In the revised financial statements to be submitted, that amount will be recorded as a loss, leading to the decline in the net assets.
According to sources, there will be some fiscal years after the one that ended in March 2001 in which Olympus will greatly reduce its net assets through the revisions, but there will probably be no fiscal year in which the company had excess liabilities.
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