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Empresas y finanzas

TSE head recommends court-led Tepco restructuring,


    TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co should go through a court-led rehabilitation similar to Japan Airlines, the head of the Tokyo bourse and former leader of a state-backed turnaround body was quoted as saying, sending the utility's stock tumbling on the possibility of a delisting.

    Tokyo Stock Exchange head Atsushi Saito made the comments in an interview with Asahi Judiciary, an online magazine owned by the Asahi newspaper.

    "It would be good if Tepco could be handled in the same way as JAL," he was quoted as saying.

    The stock dived 24 percent to 218 yen. At one point it fell by its daily limit to 206 yen, a record low.

    Tepco is still struggling to bring its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control nearly three months after it was crippled by a massive earthquake and tsunami, and much uncertainty hangs over a proposed compensation scheme for victims of the nuclear crisis.

    Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday that the company was expected to post a parent-only net loss of 570 billion yen ($7 billion) for the year to next March 31, excluding compensation costs.

    Japan's government last month agreed to set up a fund with taxpayer money to help Tepco avoid insolvency and compensate victims.

    Fukushima Daiichi's reactor cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 disaster, causing a fuel meltdown at three of the reactors and forcing the evacuation of about 80,000 residents near the plant.

    (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Writing by Edwina Gibbs; Editing by Edmund Klamann)