TEPCO to seek $12 billion capital from Japan: Reports

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The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday will ask Japan for a capital injection of $12 billion in exchange for government control over the company, reports said.

The giant private utility Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) will ask a state-backed entity for one trillion yen in public funds to avoid insolvency, Jiji Press and the Asahi Shimbun reported.

TEPCO will also ask for an additional 800 billion yen in public financial aid that would be used to pay ballooning compensation bills to victims of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant after last year's quake-tsunami, the reports said.

If the fresh injections are approved, the total amount of taxpayers' money handed to TEPCO would add up to 3.5 trillion yen.

The proposed capital injection is a response to mammoth costs TEPCO faces during the fiscal year to the end of March for decommissioning the crippled plant and for decontamination, the reports said.

After a general shareholders' meeting in June, the Japanese government will acquire newly issued stock through the state-backed Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund, Jiji said.

The government intends to get at least 51 per cent, and possibly up to two-thirds, of voting rights so as to accelerate TEPCO's management reform, reports have said.

Earlier reports have said TEPCO is trying to remain private, while Industry Minister Yukio Edano has demanded management control in exchange for the one trillion yen in help.

Edano has pushed to reform the utility, which may not be able to continue as a going concern without public money but is seen as slow to change.