Tepco hit by £4.6bn quarterly loss

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the operator of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, made a 571.8bn yen (£4.6bn) loss between April and June, as it put money aside to compensate the victims of the disaster at the plant.

Tepco, which made a 1.25 trillion yen loss in the year to the end of March, said the results featured a 400bn yen charge to compensate victims, including the thousands evacuated from the area surrounding the damaged plant.

The company, which is aiming to start making compensation payments in October, also recorded another 105bn yen in costs related to stabilising the Fukushima facility.

Yuki Sakurai, chief executive of Fukoku Capital Management, said that Tepco continued to face tough times. "It's hard to define how much Tepco will have to write off in losses, but the worst is yet to come," he said, adding that a lot hinged on how the damage was eventually defined.