Hitachi Ltd. is considering selling about half its stake in Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. in a bid to streamline its business, sources close to the matter said Friday.

Hitachi currently owns around a 51 percent stake in the machinery subsidiary. The Japanese conglomerate has been focusing its resources on the infrastructure and information technology sectors and offloading subsidiaries not strongly connected to its core business.

To concentrate on key areas, Hitachi sold its entire stake in chemical unit Hitachi Chemical Co. to Showa Denko K.K. in April and is considering selling its listed steelmaking unit Hitachi Metals Ltd.

==Kyodo

© Kyodo News International, Inc., source Newswire