Tokyo Electric Power Co is likely to sell a 20 percent stake in wind power developer Eurus Energy Holdings to trading firm Toyota Tsusho to help raise funds to compensate victims of Japan's nuclear crisis, a newspaper said on Sunday.
Tokyo Electric, the owner of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is expected to sell the stake for a little less than 20 billion yen ($262 million) and post a profit of about 10 billion, which will be used for compensation, the Nikkei business daily reported. The company, better known as Tepco, has issued a statement, saying that it has not made such a decision.
Tepco is still reeling from the radiation crisis at its Fukushima atomic plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan's north-east.
It last month began accepting victims' applications for compensation, but the troubled utility needs to find funds to foot the cost and is seeking help from a taxpayer-funded bailout body.
Eurus Energy, currently owned 60 percent by Tepco and the rest by Toyota Tsusho, is Japan's biggest wind power developer and also operates wind power plants abroad.