Takata’s share price is crashing as airbag recall balloons
Shares in Japanese airbag manufacture Takata have slumped after the supplier warned the recall of its airbag inflators, fitted into millions of cars around the world, would exceed earlier estimates.
The total cost of the recall is expected to come in at 2.7 trillion yen (£16.6bn), £5bn more than analysts at Jefferies had previously estimated.
Takata, it was reported by Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter, will peg total recall at 287.5m inflators in the worst case scenario.
Read more: From faulty cars to dodgy cheese: The number of product recalls hits a record high
Shares in the company plunged by 20 per cent to 414 yen, cutting the company’s market value to $307m.
The £16.6bn cost figure amounts to almost six-times the total assets on Takata's balance sheet as of the end of 2015, and is almost four times the revenue Takata is expected to bring in for its full year ending next month.
The increase in expected costs raises fresh concerns about the viability of the company.
Japanese car manufactures have also been swept up in the sell off, with Honda, Takata biggest customer ditching by 3.6 per cent, while Nissan lost 3.7 per cent and Toyota slid by 2.5 per cent.
Takata's airbag recall has topped even the VW emissions cheating scandal for total number of recalls.