SoftBank Group Corp. said Thursday it will sell 5 percent of its stake in a wireless carrier unit as part of its plan to secure 4.5 trillion yen ($42 billion) in cash to buy back its own stock and reduce debt.

The Japanese conglomerate said it plans to sell 240 million shares of its subsidiary SoftBank Corp., one of Japan's three major mobile phone service operators in which it has a 67.1 percent stake.

SoftBank shares closed at 1,375 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday, putting the value of the planned sale scheduled Tuesday at 330 billion yen. The shares will be "resold through securities companies."

SoftBank Group said in March it will sell up to 4.5 trillion yen of assets in an effort to improve its balance sheet hit by some of its major investments turning sour and global financial market turmoil over the coronavirus outbreak.

The Japanese company reported earlier in the week a record group net loss of 1.44 trillion yen for the January to March quarter as it wrote off the value of its key investments in startups including the operator of U.S. shared office space provider WeWork.

==Kyodo

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