Japanese heavy machinery firms plunged after aerospace giant RTX Corp. cut its full-year sales outlook and said it will take a roughly $3 billion pretax charge in the third quarter as it addresses a flaw with Pratt & Whitney engines.
IHI Corp., which has a 15% stake in a Pratt program that develops the geared turbofan engine, slid as much as 16%, the most since February 2016. Other stakeholders Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. dropped more than 6%.
The three were the worst performers on the Nikkei 225 stock index. Tuesday’s slump takes some of the luster off one of the top sectors in Japan — the Topix Machinery Index gained 34% this year through Monday amid stronger aviation demand and the Japanese government’s record defense budget.
The impact on earnings seems “worse than we had anticipated,” and “IHI is clearly the most exposed to the engine issues,” Graeme McDonald, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., wrote in a note.
McDonald expects a ¥130 billion ($886 million) hit to IHI’s earnings this year, ¥50 billion for Kawasaki Heavy and ¥20 billion Mitsubishi Heavy, which have holdings of 6% and 2.3% in the GTF program.
MTU Aero Engines, another partner on the GTF engine, said in a statement that it expects a €1 billion ($1.1 billion) impact on its earnings before interest and taxes this financial year. RTX shares tumbled 7.9% in New York on Monday. MTU Aero Engines in Germany and the UK’s Melrose Industries Plc also fell.
