Tepco Value Falls $24 Billion as Utility Faces Atomic Crisis
This article is for subscribers only.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the world’s most indebted utility, has lost 1.93 trillion yen ($24 billion) in market value as creditors snap up contracts to protect against default following the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Shares in Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, have plunged 57 percent in three days, as it battles to prevent a nuclear catastrophe at its earthquake-damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. The cost of insuring the company’s debt against default has surged almost nine-fold since the March 11 earthquake on concern it will be harder to service net borrowings of $88 billion, more than any utility worldwide, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.