Mitsubishi to shut Singapore oil-trading unit after losses by trader

Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp said on Wednesday it will shut down a Singapore unit that trades crude oil and petroleum products after alleging earlier that a trader racked up $320 million of losses in unauthorized trading. Mitsubishi said the unit, Petro-Diamond Singapore, "has confirmed after closing the positions concerned, it will realize a loss of approximately 34.2 billion yen ($314 million) before taxes, which could put the subsidiaries final debt as high as 30.8 billion yen."

Mitsubishi Corp, Japan's biggest trading house by sales, said in September the trader at Petro-Diamond had lost $320 million through unauthorized transactions in crude oil derivatives and that the matter had been reported to the police. The trader later denied wrongdoing in a statement issued through a lawyer.

($1 = 109.0700 yen)

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