Scandal-tainted Seibu Railway Co. would consider offers on the Seibu Lions professional baseball club, the head of a Seibu group reform panel said Friday.
"If good buyers emerge, we will consider" their offers, Ken Moroi told a news conference. Moroi chairs the reform panel.
His comments follow a report that communications service provider Invoice Inc. is interested in acquiring the team.
Tokyo-based Invoice has already reached a basic accord with the Lions to buy the naming rights for the team's home stadium, currently the Seibu Dome, and its minor-league team. The sale of the naming rights is part of the debt-ridden club's restructuring efforts.
But incoming Seibu Railway President Takashi Goto has said he intends to keep the baseball club, and Invoice has said it has no intention of buying the club.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, former chairman of Seibu Railway and the Lions' team representative from the team's inception in 1978 until last October, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of falsifying financial statements on shareholdings in the railway operator.