Olympus' future has been thrown into doubt as it faces the fallout of the worst corporate scandal to have hit Japan in years. Its share price has plunged again and it may be forced to delist from the Tokyo Stock Exchange after 62 years.
The company has been in turmoil
since it ousted chief executive Michael Woodford just two weeks into his reign for raising "serious governance concerns". The pressure ratcheted up this week as the company admitted wrongdoing for the first time and now faces a police investigation in Japan.
The share price dropped for the third day in a row, closing more than 17 per cent lower. More than 80 per cent of the company's value has been wiped off since Woodford was fired.
The precision-equipment maker may be removed from trading altogether after it revealed it was likely to miss the deadline for filing its first-half earnings and was put on an exchange watchlist. The company, which delayed publication after setting up an independent committee to scrutinise a series of controversial transactions, has until December 14 to file its accounts, or will be delisted.
Olympus said it would publish its financial results as soon as it receives the investigation reports from the third-party committee. "The company is fully committed to giving its utmost effort to be able to file ... by December 14," it added.
