ALUSUISSE SEES POSSIBLE BREAK-EVEN IN 1987 Schweizerische Aluminimum AG <ALUZ.Z> (Alusuisse) may be able to break even this year after cleansing its balance sheet for 1986, chief executive Hans Jucker said. "The threshold of profitability has returned to the foreseeable future," he said. "We expect already in 1987 approximately to break even. That presupposes, however, that our industrial environment does not worsen." He said Alusuisse would no longer face the burden of past losses. Alusuisse made a net loss of 688 mln Swiss francs in 1986 after a restated 756 mln loss in 1985. Gross sales were 5.93 billion francs after 8.51 billion and net turnover 5.65 billion after 8.00 billion. Alusuisse had originally reported a 692 mln francs loss for 1985. But Jucker and Finance Director Hermann Haerri told a news conference the new management installed a year ago had decided to restate the previous five years' accounts to eliminate rights on Australian bauxite previously in the books as an asset. Together with other one-off charges, Alusuisse took an gross extraordinary charge in 1986 of 698 mln francs, up from 472 mln in 1985. It also had 106 mln extraordinary income in 1986 remaining, after provisions, from the sale of its Maremont Corp subsidiary in the United States. There were no extraordinary gains in 1985. Jucker said the losses, plus those carried forward from 1985, had wiped out the company's remaining reserves and exceeded legally allowed levels, forcing Alusuisse to adopt a 50 pct capital cut, to be approved by shareholders on April 22. Jucker said he knew shareholders would find this "radical elimination of the mortgages of the past" painful, but said the foundation had been laid for a successful new company strategy. Haerri said despite the losses, the company's liquidity was strong. Bank debt had been cut by about one-third to 2.56 billion francs against the end-1985 level of 3.85 billion. Cash flow improved substantially to 323 mln francs from 111 mln and represented 5.7 pct of turnover against a mere 1.4 pct in 1985. In addition, to reassure other creditors, Alusuisse had arranged with three major Swiss banks -- Union Bank of Switzerland <SBGZ.Z>, Swiss Bank Corp <SBVZ.Z> and Credit Suisse <CRSZ.Z>, to convert 300 mln francs of credits into a subordinated loan. The main sources of losses in 1986 were book losses and not cash losses, Haerri said. Existing credit lines were used only to a small extent, and the parent company had been granted a new credit line of 200 mln francs from a consortium of Swiss banks that would cover most of the loans falling due in 1987. Haerri said the company had been criticized for maintaining bauxite rights as an asset, and so had restated the accounts. That left the 1985 account with a 756 mln franc loss instead of 692 mln, 1984 with a 68 mln profit instead of 169 mln, 1983 with a 217 mln loss instead of 82 mln and 1982 with a 479 mln loss instead of 179 mln. The new accounts show 1985 with shareholders' equity of 1.15 billion francs instead of 1.75 billion, and similar alternations were made for previous years. After 1986 losses, shareholder's equity stood at only 895 mln francs.