South Korea’s second biggest full-service carrier Asiana Airlines Inc. will dispose its partial holding in CJ Logistics Corp., which is estimated at 93.5 billion won ($87 million), to improve its financial health.

Asiana Airlines announced in a regulatory filing on Friday that it will sell off 738,427 shares of CJ Logistics in a block trade next Tuesday, which would reduce its total stake in the company to 1.75 percent. The lock-up period on the remaining shares is 90 days.

Shares of Asiana Airlines closed Friday up 2.44 percent at 4,820 won.

An official from the carrier said the sell-off is part of its efforts to improve the financial soundness by disposing non-core assets. Of its total debt amounting to around 4 trillion won as of the end of last year, about half of 2.2 trillion won worth debt matures within this year. Its cashable asset stood at just 110 billion won as of end-2017.

Asiana Airlines acquired a partial stake in CJ Logistics in 2008 and sold some to CJ Group in 2011. Market watchers believe the airliner will likely unload the remaining shares in CJ Logistics sooner or later.

In order to help the air carrier struggling against the rise of budget carriers, its parent Kumho Asiana Group signed a contract with Deutsche Asset Management on Wednesday to sell its headquarters building in central Seoul. Asiana Airlines holds an 80 percent stake in Kumho Asiana Main Tower, a special purpose company set up for operation of the building. The sale price is estimated to reach above 400 billion won.

By Moon Ji-woong and Choi Mira

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