Murakami plans to sell Hanshin shares to Hankyu - Kyodo

TOKYO, June 3 (Reuters) A Japanese shareholder activist fund has told railway operator Hankyu Holdings Inc. it will sell Hanshin Electric Railway Co. shares to Hankyu, Kyodo news agency reported on Saturday.

Hankyu had said it would bid 930 yen per share, a discount of nearly 6 percent to a weighted average of Hanshin's share price over the past six months, but nearly double their value early last September before bureaucrat-turned-investor Yoshiaki Murakami started building up his stake.

Murakami's fund, which owns 47 percent of Hanshin, had said it was still at odds with Hankyu over the price although it welcomed the planned integration of the two firms as a positive step towards increasing corporate and shareholder value.

If all shares are tendered, Hankyu said it would spend a maximum of 392.14 billion yen (