Kansai Electric Power Co. is weighing whether to cancel midterm dividends for the year through March amid concerns the utility is likely to incur a loss in the April-September half, company sources said Monday.
It would be the first time the Osaka-based utility has skipped an interim dividend since 1980, when fuel costs spiked due to the second oil crisis.
Driving the problem is the rising cost of running its thermal power plants, which are running full bore at a time when all of Kepco's reactors, except units 3 and 4 at its Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, have been halted amid the safety rethink triggered by the Fukushima No. 1 meltdown crisis, the sources said.
The utility posted a consolidated net loss of ¥99.5 billion in the April-June quarter.