15 Dec 2011

Revised earnings reports filed by Olympus

6:11 am on 15 December 2011

Olympus has filed corrected earnings reports to try to avoid being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Five years worth of reports were delivered three hours before the deadline.

The BBC reports Olympus was asked to refile its earnings because of deceptions and accounting irregularities.

Auditors signed the reports with qualified opinions, saying they could not confirm all the money flows.

The report for the six months to the end of September showed a net loss of 32.3 billion yen ($US414 million).

The camera maker reported that its net assets were valued at 46 billion yen, down from 225 billion yen in March 2007.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said it was keeping Olympus on its watchlist for possible delisting.

In November, Olympus admitted that it had been hiding losses of $US1.5 billion for almost two decades.

The BBC reports the deception came to light when chief executive Michael Woodford challenged payments at the company.

He was fired in October after raising doubts about massive fees paid in the purchase of a British medical equipment maker in 2008.

The board of the company has said it will step down but wants to choose its successors first. No one has yet been charged.