Yahoo Finance Fictitious Purchases Wipe 10% Off Japanese Bookstore’s Shares
(Bloomberg) -- A chain of second-hand bookstores may not immediately sound like the setting for a tale of stock-market volatility, but Bookoff Group Holdings Ltd. shares tumbled 10% Wednesday after discovering fictitious purchases by employees.
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The drop for the Japanese main-street retailer, which has about 800 stores around the country, was the biggest since October and came on record volume.
It will need to postpone the release of full-year results and set up a panel to investigate the suspect activity by employees at several stores, the company said in a statement dated June 25. It was due to report earnings on July 16.
Bookoff discovered “fictitious purchases by employees, improper recording of inventory, and the possibility of improper acquisition of cash through these irregularities,” according to the statement.
The impact spilled over to shareholders including second-hand goods shop operator Hard Off Corp., whose shares slumped as much as 4.7% before trimming the drop to 0.8%.
Shares of Bookoff reached the highest since 2007 as recently as May and are up 23% so far this year. But the decline Wednesday left the stock back at a three-month low.
The new date for the earning results will be announced as soon as it’s decided, it said.
The company, based in Kanagawa prefecture next to Tokyo, also has stores overseas including in New York, California and Paris.
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