Citibank (NYSE: C) Sells Japanese Niseko Village Ski Resort

Citigroup (NYSE: C) has Niseko Village, a famous ski-resort in Japan, to Malaysia’s YTL Corp (KL: YTLS).

Niseko Village was sold for 6 billion yen, or about $67 million U.S. The village is a popular vacation destination for Chinese and Australian skiers and serves as a home for Japanese snowboarders because of the resort’s reputation for having high-quality powder snow.

The resort is located on the northern island of Hokkai and features two hotels, including a 506-room Hilton Hotel, two golf courses, ski trails and natural hot springs.

YTL said in a statement that it plans to expand the resort’s residential areas and ski-in and ski-out estates, as well as its restaurant and retail facilities.

Citigroup purchased Niseko and other properties for 6.2 billion yen in 2006, but is now on a selling spree to rid itself of non-core assets in hopes of raising capital to repay its debt to the U.S. government.

In addition to the sale of Niseko Village, Citibank has also sold its Nikko Capital brokerage unit and BellSystem24 businesses in the country.