Nippon Sheet Shares Fall on Loss Forecast, Share Sale

Nippon Sheet Glass Co., which bought Pilkington Plc in 2006, fell the most in almost four months in Tokyo trading after announcing a 30 billion yen ($314 million) share sale and forecasting its annual loss to almost double.

Nippon Sheet declined 9.2 percent to close at 268 yen, the largest drop since Jan. 30, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The shares traded as much as 5.1 percent higher before the announcement.

The company said today it will sell 30 billion yen in preferred shares to an investment group formed by the Development Bank of Japan Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., and Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Co.

Tokyo-based Nippon Sheet, which today expanded planned job cuts by March 2010 to 6,700 from 5,800 announced in January, is suffering as demand for glass from automakers plummets. The company forecasts its net loss to widen to 50 billion yen in the year ending March from a 28.4 billion loss last year.

Sales for this fiscal year will probably fall 22 percent to 580 billion yen.

The 6,700 jobs represent 15 percent of the company’s total workforce. Nippon Sheet will spend 25 billion yen on restructuring over the next two years, the company said in the statement, without giving details.