Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. said Monday it will liquidate its London subsidiary, which deals mainly in the underwriting and selling of Eurobonds, as part of the group's restructuring plan.

The operations and assets of Sumitomo Trust International PLC, a wholly owned subsidiary, will largely be transferred to Sumitomo Trust's London branch by the end of March.

According to a spokesman at Sumitomo Trust's head office in Tokyo, the group is withdrawing from relatively unprofitable areas and putting its capital and management assets into strategically important areas.

The subsidiary, set up in October 1981, is capitalized at 32 million British pounds (around 5.5 billion yen) and has 46 employees. It posted a pretax profit of 3.2 million British pounds and a net profit of 2.11 million British pounds in 2000.

The move will have little impact on the firm's unconsolidated and consolidated earnings forecasts for the current fiscal year to March 31.

Jusco, OfficeMax split

Major supermarket chain operator Jusco Co. said Monday that it will terminate its money-losing joint venture with OfficeMax Inc. of the United States, selling stationery and other office products in Japan.

By agreement of the two partners, the joint venture OfficeMax Japan Co. will be dissolved Jan. 31, Jusco said.

While OfficeMax Japan, founded in April 1997, operates six stores in Japan, they will gradually all be shut down.

OfficeMax is an operator of a stationery store chain in the U.S.

Capitalized at 20 million yen and owned 81 percent by Jusco and 19 percent by OfficeMax, the joint venture company has been losing money due to sluggish economic activity and intense competition. It is faced with cumulative losses totaling some 3 billion yen.

The termination of OfficeMax Japan will result in an extraordinary loss of 3.3 billion yen, which has already been included in earnings projections for the current business year that ends in February, Jusco said.