Gst, its just not softbank having problems in Japan.
>TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) - Shares in troubled Japanese Internet investor Hikari Tsushin Inc <9435.T> fell their limit for a second day in a row on Wednesday, resuming a freefall that began three months ago while analysts said their was no floor in sight.
The shares slipped 2,000 yen or 15.38 percent to 11,000, their lowest since listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last September and less than five percent of their record intra-day high of 241,000 yen hit on February 15.
The slide resumed after Hikari Tsushin said on Monday it sold shares in Phone.com Inc <PHCM.O>, rekindling concerns over its financial health and leaving analysts wondering if it was too late for the company to save itself.
"With its share price where it is now, there is no support level in sight. The company has missed the opportunity to take the drastic measures it needs to shore up the price," said Toshiaki Iba, a senior analyst at Tokyo Mitsubishi Securities.
Hikari said it would book a profit of about 12.6 billion yen in the business year to August 2000 from the sale of Phone.com shares, aimed at improving its cash position and credibility among lenders.
Market players, however, saw this as another attempt to pad the books with one-off profits and mask weak profitability in its main business as a mobile phone subscription agent.
Hikari posted an operating loss of 13 billion yen for the half-year to February, against a forecast of a six billion yen profit, but logged current profit of 7.4 billion yen by selling some of its shareholdings.
That hurt investor confidence, since only two weeks before founder and president Yasumitsu Shigeta reassured analysts and reporters its business was growing steadily.
Tokyo Mitsubishi's Iba said the sharp decline in its price meant most investors had sold their holdings.
"Hikari could stage some minor rebounds along the way, but it is bound to go down further," Iba said.
DIVIDEND DELAY
Hikari said on Wednesday it had warned shareholders their dividend payments for the half-year to February would be delayed by nine days to May 29, the latest problem to raise concerns about the company's disclosure practices.
A Hikari spokeswoman said the delay was due to internal paperwork matters, not a lack of funds.
"It's just 10 yen a share, or some 300 million yen in total. In no way do we have any problems coming up with that amount of money," the spokeswoman said.
Despite the recent gloom, some industry specialists say the share price may soon find a floor from which it can rebound.
Motoharu Sone, an analyst at Tsubasa Securities, said the next support level for Hikari is likely to be 8,000 yen as its per-share asset value and unrealised profits from shareholdings are reckoned to be worth around that much.
Others said weak sentiment towards information technology stocks could also be blamed for Hikari's losses on Wednesday.
Shares in Hikari Tsushin staged a meteoric rise last year amid strong investor appetite for Internet-related stocks.
It became one of the 10 largest Japanese companies by market capitalisation last December and Forbes Global magazine named Shigeta the fifth-richest man in the world.
06:52 05-10-00 |
