TOKYO Toyota group companies plan to cut their holdings in supplier Denso by selling around 10% of the company by year-end, a share sale likely worth around $4.7 billion, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Toyota's portion will represent almost half of the roughly 10%, with the total sale seen at around 700 billion ($4.7 billion) at current market prices, the two sources said.
Denso separately plans to buy back some of its own shares in the open market to offset the potential hit to its share price, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because the matter is not public.
Denso, a key Toyota supplier, is the world's second-largest maker of automotive components.
A Toyota spokesperson said it was not in a position to comment on Denso and said the contents of the Reuters report of the share sale were not something it had announced itself.
A Denso spokesperson declined to comment.
($1 = 148.2400 yen)
(Reporting by Miho Uranaka, Daniel Leussink and Maki Shiraki; Editing by Nobuhiro Kubo and David Dolan)
