NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. will sell its brokerage unit, Toyota Financial Services Securities Corp., to Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings Inc. as it increases focus on its mainstay automobile business, sources said Thursday.

Toyota Financial Services Corp., which orchestrates Toyota's financial business, will sell its entire stake in the brokerage to Tokai Tokyo Financial, the sources said.

Toyota's brokerage unit will then merge with Tokai Tokyo Securities Co., a brokerage under Tokai Tokyo Financial, probably next spring, they said.

Toyota and Tokai Tokyo Financial will discuss the sales prices and other details of the handover, the sources said, adding that the merger will probably give Toyota Financial Services a stake of around 5 percent in the new brokerage.

Tokai Tokyo Securities has a broader production lineup and more outlets than Toyota Financial Services Securities.

The Toyota brokerage was launched in July 2000 with an eye to enhancing the automaker's financial business. But it sank into the red in business 2008 through March this year, racking up a net loss of ¥1.2 billion.

Despite robust sales of its Prius gas-electric hybrid, Toyota expects to remain in the red on a consolidated basis in the current business year, amid a sluggish auto market at home and abroad.