Olympus set to axe 3,000 staff

It will scrap about 40 per cent of its 30 manufacturing plants around the world by the end of March 2015 and cut 2,700 jobs, or 7 per cent of its global workforce, by the end of March 2014.

At the same time, the company forecast a hugely increased profit of 7 billion yen for the fiscal year through March 2013.

It had showed a loss of 49bn yen in the previous year.

It also announced that it will pay former chief executive Michael Woodford £10 million in a settlement over his unceremonious dismissal from the company.

Mr Woodford was fired in October after he blew the whistle on dubious accounting practices at Olympus. The Tokyo-based firm acknowledged it had hidden 117.7bn yen (£900m) in investment losses dating back to the 1990s.

Three former Olympus executives, including the company’s ex-chairman, were arrested earlier this year on suspicion of orchestrating the accounting cover-up. The company is suing some executives for damages.

Mr Woodford had sued in a British court, accusing Olympus of unfair dismissal and discrimination in not treating him the same way as Japanese executive.

The image of Olympus has been badly tarnished recently.

It faces another high-profile whistleblowing case, unrelated to the accounting scandal, involving a Japanese employee Masaharu Hamada.

Mr Woodford has accepted that he cannot return to the company, but he has expressed interest in returning to work in Japan.