Daiei Inc. plans to sell an additional 100 real estate assets for 20 billion yen to cut huge interest-bearing debts as a key part of its rehabilitation plan, company sources said Sunday.
The troubled retail chain will start concluding a string of transactions in mid-July, with most of the purchasers of the properties to be selected through tenders, the sources said.
Daiei hopes to conclude sales contracts for most of the properties by Feb. 28, the end of its 2005 business year, they said.
Major items to be sold include land around the Shinkobe Oriental Hotel and the Sannomiya parking lot, both in Kobe, as well as resort facilities across the nation, the sources said.
Daiei had debts of 1.03 trillion yen as of last Feb. 28. It plans to slash them to around 500 billion yen by the end of next February through such means as debt waivers from its creditor banks and property sales, they said.
The rehabilitation program calls on creditors to waive a combined 400 billion yen.
Daiei also plans to use all of the proceeds from sales of closed stores and other properties to pay its debts.
The company is seeking to turn around its business fortunes under the supervision and support of the government-backed Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan.
Matsushita lay off
OSAKA (Kyodo) Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. plans to cut the number of workers in its domestic semiconductor development and production business by about 1,000, or 6 percent to 7 percent of the division's workforce, Matsushita officials said Sunday.
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