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• Japan Tobacco Says State Will Sell Stake ‘Eventually’ (Update2) 

Japan Tobacco Inc. said the country’s government will sell its stake in the company “eventually” as Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama may want to raise funds to stem rising public debt.

“What we hear is that they think about privatization, which includes us,” Japan Tobacco’s executive deputy president Munetaka Takeda told a briefing in London today. “So, eventually it’s likely to happen.”

Japan’s government owns 50.01 percent of the cigarette maker, having sold shares three times since the company was founded in 1985. Most recently, the state sold a 14.5 percent stake in June 2004. Public debt in Japan is approaching twice the size of gross domestic product, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“The government will look cautiously at the stock market, so it’s unlikely there’ll be a sale overnight or tomorrow, nor will they dispose of everything at once,” Takeda said.

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