Thyssenkrupp's losses deepened and debt surged, eating into cash from a multibillion-euro elevator sale that was meant to fund a turnaround.

The German engineering conglomerate said its net after-tax loss widened to 1.31 billion euros (S$2 billion) in the six months to March 31 from 93 million euros a year earlier. That helped push net debt 56 per cent higher to 7.55 billion euros, a figure likely to rise as the coronavirus pandemic drags the global economy into a downturn.

The financial situation means the firm will have less room to deploy funds from its 17.2 billion euro elevator sale. Thyssenkrupp's chief executive officer Martina Merz hoped to use some of the proceeds from the sale of its elevator division to a group backed by Advent International and Cinven to boost ailing units or spruce them up for sale. The elevator transaction is expected to close later this year.

"But it's already clear now that the coronavirus will significantly reduce our leeway," Ms Merz said, adding executives would present restructuring plans to the firm's supervisory board in the coming week.

While the engineering giant said it was impossible to give full-year guidance due to economic uncertainty, it warned it could lose as much as one billion euros for the fiscal third quarter. Thyssenkrupp first withdrew its full-year guidance in March.