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Asahi Glass, Nippon Sheet shares fall after fine

Shares of Asahi Glass Co and Nippon Sheet Glass Co, Asia’s two largest glassmakers, dropped in Tokyo trading after they and two rivals were fined by the EU over claims they fixed car window prices.

Asahi Glass shares fell 5 percent to ¥515 (US$5.37) at the close of trading yesterday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nippon Sheet Glass tumbled 9 percent to ¥314, the biggest drop since Oct. 24.

Cie de Saint-Gobain SA shares fell 5.2 percent in Paris on Wednesday.

Nippon Sheet Glass’ Pilkington unit, Asahi Glass and Saint-Gobain, Europe’s largest building-materials supplier, were fined a record 1.38 billion euros (US$1.7 billion). The penalties were increased because the companies were repeat offenders, the commission said yesterday after the Japanese market closed.

Asahi Glass “will examine the decision and determine accordingly their future course of action,” the company said yesterday in a statement on its Web site.

Nippon Sheet will also “decide on future action, including a possible appeal,” the statement said on its Web site.

Saint-Gobain was fined 896 million euros, the highest against a single company, the European Commission said.

Asahi Glass was fined 113.5 million euros and Nippon’s Pilkington unit must pay 370 million euros.

A fourth company, Belgium’s Soliver, received a 4.4 million euro penalty.

Nippon Sheet Glass, which has set aside £250 million (US$373 million) for fines related to automotive and construction glass, will book an Y8.9 billion charge in the second quarter of the year to March 31 to make up for a shortage of the reserves, the company said.

Asahi Glass said it will separately provide the financial impact.

Saint-Gobain, Pilkington and two competitors were fined a total of 487 million euros for participating in a separate cartel to set the prices of glass used in the construction industry.
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