Yanase & Co., a car dealer specializing in foreign vehicles, said Thursday it will transfer the import rights relating to two foreign car makes to the Japanese unit of U.S. auto giant General Motors Corp.
The two makes are GM's Cadillac and Saab, produced by Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile AB, a GM unit.
This means Yanase will effectively pull out of the foreign car import business in Japan, although the firm will continue to conduct sales and maintenance services for foreign cars, company officials said.
It will also continue to import foreign commercial vehicles.
Yanase is expected to concentrate on retail and service operations so it can cut costs and streamline its overall business, the officials said.
The company plans to close loss-making sales outlets over the next couple of years. It currently operates several hundred outlets across Japan.
Yanase's consolidated earnings report for the business year that ended Sept. 30 showed sales of 450.1 billion yen, down 1.8 percent from the previous year.
It logged a group net profit of 2.6 billion yen, largely due to job cuts and other restructuring measures.