Willcom in Talks with Govt Turnaround Body

Willcom Inc., the leading PHS (Personal Handyphone System) service provider, is in the final stage of talks to reorganize under The Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan (ETIC) according to the Nikkei. ETIC is expected to take an equity stake in the mobile carrier, as are Softbank Corp., Japan's third-largest cellular phone carrier, and Advantage Partners, a Japanese private equity firm. Willcom, owning a total of 93.5 billion yen to about 30 financial institutions, is in private negotiations with creditors, asking for debt forgiveness. Willcom, once it recovered from support of the US investment firm Carlyle Group (a major shareholder), has been losing its customer base because of fierce competition in the mobile phone market.