Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.’s ¥4.25 trillion ($40 billion) buyout of wireless unit NTT Docomo Inc. will make it easier for the recombined company to sell assets, generate enough cash to deliver dividends and repay debt incurred from financing the deal, Chief Executive Officer Jun Sawada said.

The merger will also help the Tokyo-based telecommunications giant keep up share buybacks and invest aggressively overseas, Sawada said in an interview Tuesday. Greater cost savings as well as sales and securitization of real estate, data centers and other assets will deliver enough cash to revamp the business while rewarding shareholders and boosting its overseas portfolio, according to him.

"We want to make our existing assets more liquid and use that to invest in new businesses,” he said.