Pickens Will Sell Holding in Japanese Firm : Securities: The oilman-financier will throw in the towel after a two-year attempt to join the board at Koito Manufacturing Co.

AUSTIN, Tex. —  After two years of wrangling for a seat on the board of Koito Manufacturing Co., T. Boone Pickens Jr. said Monday he plans to give in and sell his 26.4% stake in the Japanese auto parts maker.

“We’ve given up on ever getting on the board of Koito,” said Pickens, the Texas oilman-financier who helped pioneer hostile takeover tactics in the United States.

In an Opinion Page article for the Washington Post, Pickens wrote that he would sell his 42.4 million shares to Japanese stock speculator Kitaro Watanabe, who sold him the shares in 1989.

Terms had not been reached, he said during an appearance at the state Capitol in Austin on Monday.

“We haven’t concluded any transaction or anything else, but we’re going to sometime here in the next few days or certainly weeks or so,” Pickens said.

Koito has contended that Watanabe actually controlled Pickens’ shares and was attempting greenmail, an attempt to have the company to buy back shares at above-market prices to avoid a takeover.

Pickens maintained that he had a genuine interest in Koito and was entitled to board representation as the company’s largest stockholder.

As he campaigned for two years to join Koito’s 20-seat board, Pickens sought to make his fight a political cause.

He took his battle to Washington many times, the latest on Wednesday, when he told the House subcommittee on commerce and competitiveness that his problems illustrated the closed doors many Americans hit when they try to do business with the Japanese.

He first indicated that he would sell the stake in Sunday’s article for the Washington Post.

When Pickens bought the Koito stock with money lent by Watanabe, the purchase amount was estimated at $1.01 billion. In recent weeks, Koito’s stock price has made Pickens’ stake worth about $844 million.

Pickens said he does not believe that he will lose money on the sale but hopes to break even.

“I bought it with a note, and the collateral is the stock,” he said. “So in looking at that, you’d figure that the collateral is going to pay for the note. That’s what I’m counting on.”