TOKYO -- Japanese railway and hotel operator Seibu Holdings is selling its construction unit for about 40 billion yen ($357 million) in an effort to buttress its finances amid the COVID-induced travel slump, Nikkei has learned.

The move comes amid sluggish demand for commuting and vacationing due to prolonged COVID restrictions.

Seibu Construction, a builder of detached houses, condominiums and resort facilities, reported a net profit of 2.4 billion yen ($21.4 million) on sales of 68.6 billion yen in the year ended in March.

The unit has already attracted bids from major homebuilders and construction companies, informed sources said.

Seibu declined to comment for this story except to say nothing has been decided.

Seibu, the Tokyo-based parent company, reported a loss of 73.2 billion yen for the year ended in March, the largest loss for a private railway operator. The company appears to have stayed in the red for the April-September first half.

The company continued to bleed liquidity through the end of June, with its capital-to-asset ratio at 17%, down from 24% in March 2019.

To bolster its balance sheet, Seibu decided to ramp up sales of assets and noncore businesses under a three-year business plan released in May. Resort hotel operating subsidiary Prince Hotels, which intends to become a pure operator of hotels and resorts in April 2022, is set to divest some 40 resort facilities for a total of over 100 billion yen.

Seibu is not the only railway operator that has been accelerating asset sales. In October, Osaka-based Kintetsu Group Holdings sold eight hotels in Kyoto and elsewhere to U.S. investment company Blackstone Group. Tokyu and Keikyu, meanwhile, are looking to unload unused assets.