The fraud will not affect Konecranes' ability to generate operating profit.

Finnish crane maker Konecranes has told authorities one of its foreign subsidiaries has become the victim of fraud.

A company statement explains that "the perpetrators have - through identity theft and other fraudulent actions - managed to induce the subsidiary to make unwarranted payments in a total amount of up to EUR17.2 million (USD19.2 million)".

Konecranes says it has reported the crime to the police in the relevant countries and is working closely with the authorities to recover its losses and to bring the perpetrators of the fraud to justice.

Konecranes notes that it has group-wide crime insurance for EUR10 million (USD11 million).

Because of the size of the potential uninsured loss, the company has had to report the incident to the stock exchange, but it notes that any potential "extraordinary costs" will not affect Konecranes' ability to generate operating profit. "They will not affect the 2015 financial guidance previously published by Konecranes," according to the statement.

The company says it hopes that reports of its loss will "help other companies to avoid becoming victims of similar crimes".

Because of the ongoing investigations, no further details of the crime have been revealed.

Konecranes last week announced a merger with Terex Corporation. The combined company, to be called Konecranes Terex Plc, will be a leading global lifting and materials handling solutions company with estimated combined 2014 revenues of EUR7.5 billion (USD10 billion).