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Tokyo Electric says $24-bn loans not good enough
Tokyo Electric Power has secured $24 billion in bank loans but said it would not be enough to keep the company running, adding to fears the utility may collapse under the strain of paying for Japan’s nuclear disaster.
Tokyo Electric Power has secured $24 billion in bank loans but said it would not be enough to keep the company running, adding to fears the utility may collapse under the strain of paying for Japan’s nuclear disaster.
In a further sign of the disarray at Asia’s largest utility, the company said its president had been hospitalised and was handing over the reins to chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata.
Katsumata told a news conference that Tokyo Electric, known as TEPCO, had not had time to estimate the financial impact on the company from the disaster at its Fukushima nuclear plant but expected it to be “very severe”.
The 2 trillion yen ($24 billion) in loans secured from its lenders would not be enough and the company would discuss with the government how to ensure it had adequate funding, he said.
