Japanese tunnelling contractor, Kumagai Gumi Co Ltd, recently announced a loss of US$25.1M, for the half year ending 30 September. It blamed a shrinking market and mounting debts.
Kumagai, which posted losses of US$34.7M in the same period a year ago, saw group sales fall 17.9% to US$2.01bn. Interest-bearing debts stood at US$4.68bn at the end of September, down US$538.2M from the previous year.
Despite these results, Kumagai maintained its forecast of a full-year group net profit of US$24.6M.
Japan’s financial services minister, Heizo Takenaka, is expected to force banks to deal aggressively with bad loans to debt-ridden construction companies. News which caused Kumagai’s share price to slip to US$0.73.
Kumagai’s recent tunnelling work includes a 4km open cut section on the New Delhi metro, and a 11km section on Bangkok’s MRT.
