Daewoo Shipbuilding Shares Tumble

South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shares fell 12 percent on Wednesday after a newspaper reported the company had losses of about two trillion won ($1.75 billion) that had not been booked.

Daewoo, the world's largest shipyard in terms of tonnage of ships on order as of May, had accumulated the losses from businesses such as construction of offshore plants and semisubmersible drilling rigs for the Arctic, the Chosun Ilbo reported, citing an unnamed government source and an unnamed official in Korea Development Bank, the shipbuilder's major shareholder.

A Daewoo spokesman said some losses were expected and the company was reviewing the matter, but the extent of the losses had not been determined and the company expected to file its findings when it announced quarterly earnings as late as early August.

($1 = 1,142.3400 won)