ThyssenKrupp suffers €5bn loss - FT.com ThyssenKrupp fell to a €5bn full-year net loss after booking a €3.6bn writedown on steel plants in Brazil and the US that have become the most disastrous investments in the history of the German steel and technology conglomerate. The announcement came late on Monday following a meeting of ThyssenKrupp's supervisory board, which confirmed that half of the six-member executive board should leave the company in order to allow a fresh start following these losses and a spate of corruption scandals. The Steel Americas project and the various compliance violations have not just caused immense financial damage. We have also lost trust and credibility," said Heinrich Hiesinger, chief executive. Analysts had expected ThyssenKrupp to report a loss of €1bn. Mr Hiesinger took over as chief executive in 2011 with a mandate to sell assets representing more than €10bn in sales, including the company's Inoxum stainless steel unit, and to cut net debt, which stood at €5.8bn at the end of September. He hopes to refocus the group on less cyclical technology. But his task has been hampered by the weak economy and particularly the delays, cost overruns and the failure of the business model associated with two steel plants in Alabama and near Rio de Janeiro. These were supposed to transform the fortunes of ThyssenKrupp when the plans were hatched almost a decade ago but instead have caused billions of euros in losses and forced the departure of several executives. Gerhard Cromme, supervisory board chairman since 2001, has faced growing criticism in German media, but people familiar with his thinking said he felt misled by former management over the problems at the steel plants in the Americas and therefore not responsible for them. The €3.6bn writedown at ThyssenKrupp's Steel Americas unit follows a €2.1bn writedown last year, when the company reported a €1.8bn net loss. The group does not plan to pay a dividend for the past fiscal year. In spite of the heavy loss ThyssenKrupp said its financing remained "secure" due to €6.7bn in available cash, cash equivalents and undrawn credit lines. The group plans to cut costs by a total of €2bn over the next three years. Mr Hiesinger hopes to sell the two Steel Americas plants but seems likely to receive only around half of the €7bn at which the assets were previously valued in the company's books. ThyssenKrupp said the new fair value of the plants had been established from internal calculations and "knowledge from the ongoing sale process." The group said the sale process was proceeding to plan and that selected interested parties were now conducting due diligence. For the new fiscal year, which began in October, ThyssenKrupp forecast adjusted earnings from continuing operations before interest and taxation of around €1bn, compared with around €1.4bn in the previous fiscal year. It expects sales from continuing operations to remain at the prior year level of around €40bn. Total sales from contining operations fell 6 per cent in the fiscal year that has concluded at the end of September due to lower steel volumes and prices. "In the past fiscal year we made major progress with our strategic development programme, in particular with the portfolio measures," Mr Hiesinger said. Now we are focussing on further improving our operating peformance and our leadership culture. We need more efficiency, transparency and honesty at all levels.