Sasebo Heavy Industries Co. said Wednesday it has lowered its unconsolidated net profit forecast for the current business year through March 31 because it has been forced to return government money obtained by fraud.
The midsize shipbuilder, which illegally obtained 477 million yen in central government subsidies for employee retraining and rehiring at its Sasebo shipyard in Nagasaki Prefecture, said it has cut its net profit projection to 1.723 billion yen on a parent-only basis.
The projection was revised from its earlier outlook of 2.2 billion yen in profits, estimated on Feb. 28.
The Tokyo-based firm projected parent-only pretax profits at 2.4 billion yen, on sales of 46.4 billion yen, both unchanged from earlier estimates.
On Tuesday, the company admitted to having illegally collected about 377 million yen in retraining subsidies known as "lifetime capacity building benefits" in 2000 and 2001.
It also admitted it wrongfully obtained roughly 100 million yen in government subsidies given to companies rehiring middle-aged workers.