TEHRAN Seibu Department Stores Ltd. denied Monday it was planning to take over collapsed Sogo Co. Ltd. in an alliance that would create Japan's biggest department store chain.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Saturday the two retail giants would agree this month to consolidate under the same holding company in 2002 after working together on resuscitating Sogo.
"We do not know where this story came from," a Seibu spokesman told AFP.
The prestigious Seibu chain said it may send senior directors to help manage Sogo after its collapse although the details, including the timing, had yet to be finalized.
"There was a news report concerning Sogo and Seibu department, and we are considering sending personnel," Seibu President Yukio Horiuchi said in a written statement Monday.
"But at this point there is nothing beyond sending personnel," Horiuchi said.
Sogo also denied the report.
"We have never said such a thing and the report itself was based on speculation," a Sogo spokesman said.
Sogo, burdened with debts from heavy expansion, collapsed and sought court protection on July 12.
The government had agreed to cancel almost half the 170-year-old Sogo store chain's 200-billion-yen ($1.9 billion) debt to Shinsei Bank Ltd. but it had to withdraw the scheme under public pressure.
A Seibu-Sogo tie-up would create Japan's largest department store chain with annual revenue of 1.7 trillion yen ($16 billion), easily exceeding Takashimaya Co. Ltd.'s 1.1 trillion yen.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the two retailers would ask for loans and investment by their main banks, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd. and Industrial Bank of Japan.
Seibu Department Stores, a core company of the Seibu group, was founded in 1940 and has 24 stores in Japan.