JX Nippon Mining unit to sell South Korean smelter stake for $727 million

TOKYO (Reuters) -JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corp, a unit of Japan's oil and metals giant Eneos Holdings, said on Thursday its unit will sell its entire stake in South Korea's copper smelter LS-Nikko Copper to its partner LS Corp for 930 billion won ($727 million).

The exit comes as the Japanese company faces weakening margins from smelting amid competition with larger Chinese rivals.

The sale is to concentrate management resources on growth areas, such as advanced materials used in chips and smartphones, a JX spokesperson said.

Under the deal, JX unit Japan Korea Joint Smelting will sell its 49.9% stake to LS Corp, which holds the remaining stake in the smelter.

JX owns 80% of Japan Korea Joint Smelting while Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co Ltd and Marubeni Corp each hold 10%.

For Eneos, the deal has little impact on group earnings and has been factored into its profit forecast for the year to March 2023, it said in a separate statement.

($1 = 1,278.6700 won)

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; editing by Toby Chopra and Jason Neely)