Photo/Illutration Japan Post Co. (Asahi Shimbun file photo))

Japan will this month sell up to 1.03 billion Japan Post Holdings shares, which at Wednesday’s closing price would be worth 952 billion yen ($8.52 billion), a filing showed, to help with rebuilding areas hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The sale would represent a stake of about 27 percent, Japan’s finance ministry said in a statement, lowering the government’s ownership to one third, which is the minimum allowed by law, in what will be the third sale of shares in Japan Post Holdings.

In previous sales, the government raised 3.05 trillion yen ($27.31 billion) from selling down shares in the formerly state-owned Japan Post Holdings and its affiliates. The latest sale price will be determined between Oct. 25 and 27.

The total amount raised through share sales so far accounts for around 10 percent of Japan’s reconstruction budget, which has totaled some 32 trillion yen over a decade.

At Wednesday’s closing share price of 926.6 yen, the Japan Post Holdings stake now being sold by the government would be worth 952 billion yen.

The government has been carefully gauging market conditions to decide the timing of further sales of its shares.

In 2015, Japan Post Holdings, Japan Post Insurance and Japan Post Bank listed at the same time in what was the country’s biggest privatization in about three decades.

The shares will begin trading four business days after the final price is set and Japan Post Holdings will buy back up to 100 billion yen, or 3.5 percent of its own shares.

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