After the flurry of concern caused by Canon Inc saying that it did not see itself buying into Ascii Corp (CI No 1,990), trading in Ascii shares was suspended yesterday and will resume today, after president Kazuhiko Nishi clarified the company’s situation: according to Reuter, Nishi told reporters that the company has more than $320m in debt outstanding and does have funding problems, but has no serious business difficulties; he denied the company had asked Canon for a capital infusion, and declined to give details on Ascii’s requests for new loans from its six major creditor banks including Fuji Bank Ltd and Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd; most of the new money Ascii is asking banks to lend will be used to cover the redemption of Swiss franc convertible bonds in March 1993, and German mark straight bonds in March 1994, Nishi said.
