The Japanese government plans to sell 1.12 million shares in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) by the end of the fiscal year starting in April, cutting its stake to near the legal minimum of one-third, Finance Ministry officials confirmed today.
The shares were fetching 449,000 yen by early afternoon, which would value the sale at 502.88 billion yen ($4.83 billion).
The government stake in NTT, the world's biggest telecoms group by revenue, currently stands at 40.8 percent or 6.42 million shares.
"We hope to complete the sale plan of NTT stocks in the coming fiscal year, but it depends on market conditions and there is a possibility we could be unable to do so," a ministry official said.
The ministry started unloading its stake in the former state monopoly in 1987 as part of the privatisation of state assets.
In the budget for fiscal 2005/06 the government has earmarked revenues of 344.1 billion yen from the sale of 923,000 state-owned NTT shares based on a share price of 370,000 yen.
The shares fell 1.97 percent by early afternoon, while the benchmark Nikkei average was up 0.27 percent.