Struggling condominium developer Haseko Corp. unveiled a sweeping restructuring plan Thursday, calling for 150 billion yen in financial support from major creditor banks and a 10 percent cut in personnel expenses in three years.

The restructuring package, its second in three years, also aims to more than halve in three years the 540 billion yen in interest-bearing debts the Haseko group has accrued since the downfall of the asset-inflated bubble economy in the early 1990s.

The three major creditors -- Daiwa Bank, Chuo Mitsui Trust & Banking Corp. and the Industrial Bank of Japan -- said they will consider financial help after seeing details of Haseko's request.

Haseko said the job-cut program will affect some 200 employees at the parent level and 400 at the group level over the next three years.

In a prepared statement, Haseko said it will adopt a holding company structure by April 2005, reorganizing its operations into two companies.

The construction firm also said it will withdraw from public works projects, currently accounting for about 4 percent of its overall revenues, and redirect its focus to urban redevelopment projects, an area where the company is competitive.

It will try to boost revenues from fee businesses, such as those for maintenance services for condominium and office building owners, so that the share of profits from fee businesses will rise to 50 percent of the total in three years, it said.

Haseko said it hopes to get financial support from major creditor banks by turning about 150 billion yen worth of outstanding debts into Haseko shares.

The debt-for-equity swap, however, would boost these banks' combined equity holdings in Haseko to more than 5 percent of its outstanding shares, violating the 5 percent limit imposed on banks' holdings in business corporations.

The company will therefore ask the land ministry for the application of the industrial rehabilitation law, company sources said, adding rehabilitation under the law is not subject to the 5 percent rule.

Daiwa Bank said it will "positively" consider financial help. Chuo Mitsui and IBJ also said they will consider assistance, with IBJ adding it will do what it can.

Masato Obata, vice minister at the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, welcomed Haseko's latest restructuring plan, saying the ministry will provide as much help as possible.

Haseko said it plans to split the company's business into two major divisions, one involving urban redevelopment projects and the other maintenance and reconstruction of houses, and put them under the control of a holding company to be established by 2005.

Haseko, which had a workforce of 3,350 employees as of September, posted a group net profit of 95.3 billion yen on 458.9 billion yen in revenues in the 2000 business year.

But the company, listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is still reeling under the weight of heavy debts even after Daiwa and other creditors forgave 350 billion yen in 1999.

Fujita's losses grow

Hotel operator Fujita Kanko Inc. said Thursday its group net loss for the business year to last Dec. 31, widened to 6.33 billion yen from 3.25 billion yen the previous year, due largely to extraordinary losses related to securities and real estate holdings.

The pretax balance, however, came to a profit of 3.36 billion yen, up 30.7 percent from the previous year, due to an improvement in nonoperating operations, the company said. Group revenues rose 1.3 percent to 86.79 billion yen.

It posted extraordinary losses of 13.48 billion yen.

Of that, 4.09 billion yen came from securities appraisal losses and capital losses from securities sales, 3.31 billion yen from appraisal losses on real estate holdings, and 455 million yen from appraisal losses on stockholdings of its subsidiaries.

The company will pay a dividend of 5 yen per share for the full year.

For the current business year, Fujita forecasts a group net profit of 1.9 billion yen and a group pretax profit of 3.8 billion yen on revenues of 86 billion yen.