TOKYO (Reuters) -Nippon Steel revised on Friday its forecast for the full fiscal year to a 40 billion yen ($266 million) loss from 200 billion yen profit previously, partly due to costs related to its acquisition of U.S. Steel.
In June, Nippon Steel, Japan’s biggest steelmaker, closed its $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel after an 18-month struggle to obtain U.S. government approval for the deal, which faced scrutiny due to national security concerns.
Nippon Steel said that the full year results will be hit by a one-off loss tied to the U.S. Steel deal, in particular a loss of 231.5 billion yen related to the transfer of its 50% stake in joint venture AM/NS Calvert to partner ArcelorMittal, and some other factors.
On Friday, Nippon Steel posted 195.83 billion yen in losses for the three months to June 30, wider than analysts’ expectations.
An LSEG poll of analysts had expected Nippon Steel to post 25.7 billion yen in quarterly losses. A year earlier, it reported quarterly net profit of 157.56 billion yen.
Nippon Steel has also decided to conduct a stock split at a ratio of five shares for every one share effective from October 1.
Last month, global rating agency S&P downgraded Nippon Steel to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB+’ with a ‘negative’ outlook, citing an increasing financial strain following the Japanese steelmaker’s acquisition of U.S. Steel.
($1 = 150.5400 yen)
(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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