Olivetti Debt Doubles During Quarter

Tue., Oct. 1, 1996

From Staff And Wire Reports

Olivetti SpA, the Italian computer maker, said its net debt nearly doubled to 2.395 trillion lire ($1.57 billion) by Aug. 31 from 1.260 trillion lire two months earlier.

Olivetti was asked by the Italian stock market regulator to provide figures for net debt up to Aug. 31. The regulators are investigating the company’s accounts to determine whether it has understated the full extent of its losses.

Olivetti’s North American operations, which are based in Spokane, have not been losing money.

Only 604 billion lire of the 1.13 trillion-lira growth in debt can be considered “actual debt,” said a company spokeswoman, compared with the 708 billion lire during the same period the year before.

The rest of the company’s results were little changed from a financial report Olivetti released on Sept. 3.

The company posted a pretax loss of 440.2 billion lire, compared with a first-half loss last year of 1.087 trillion lire. It hasn’t made a profit in five years.

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Olivetti Debt Doubles During Quarter

Jesse Tinsley

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