JAL Hotels Co., a unit of financially distressed Japan Airlines Corp., is planning to list its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's second section in fiscal 2008, according to sources.
Japan Airlines International Co., which holds about a 90 percent stake in JAL Hotels, will sell its holdings in the hotel for the listing. The 20 billion yen it hopes to raise from the sale will be used to bolster JAL's mainstay airline businesses, the sources said. JAL Hotels already has started talking with brokerage firms to begin preparations sometime in fiscal 2007.
JAL's hotel business suffered in the late 1990s when the company went on a buying spree, purchasing prestigious overseas hotels in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In the past few years JAL has sold off assets including hotels, buildings and land and focused on hotel management.
The selloffs helped JAL Hotels stay in the black for the third straight year, making a stock listing more attractive.
JAL Hotels owns stakes in such properties as Hotel Nikko Tokyo in Tokyo's Odaiba district and Hotel Nikko Naha Grandcastle in Okinawa Prefecture.