The Hitachi group announced Thursday it will sell off a controlling share of its stock in a monorail subsidiary that links central Tokyo and Haneda airport to East Japan Railway Co. for 7 billion yen.
Hitachi Transport System Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., owns 100 percent of Tokyo Monorail Co., which operates the rail gateway to the nation's most vital domestic airport.
Under the agreement, Hitachi Transport System will sell 70 percent of the stock to JR East and the remainder to Hitachi Ltd. by the end of March, the companies said at a news conference in Tokyo.
Given the monorail's current debts and future equipment investment needs, the Hitachi group decided to sell the business so it can focus its corporate resources on its core segments, said Hitachi Executive Vice President Kazuo Kumagai.
For the 2000 business year, Tokyo Monorail posted operating profits of 3.05 billion yen on sales of 15.5 billion yen. But pretax profits only came to 150 million yen due to debts totaling 50 billion yen.
The monorail carries passengers from Hamamatsucho Station to Haneda in 22 minutes.