(Adds details of plan, share price)
TOKYO, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Japanese truck maker Nissan Diesel Motor said on Tuesday that its main banks and major shareholder Nissan Motor would give it 106 billion yen ($957 million) in financial aid to help its balance sheet.
The announcement was expected after detailed reports of a bail-out had circulated for nearly two weeks, lifting the truck maker's shares by more than 10 percent since the first report.
Under the plan, Mizuho Corporate Bank , Mizuho Trust & Banking Co and Resona Bank will swap 90 billion yen of loans for preferred shares. Nissan Motor will provide 16 billion yen by swapping debt and convertible bonds into preferred equity.
Nissan Motor owns 22.5 percent of Nissan Diesel.
Nissan Diesel also raised its revenue forecast for the year to March 2004 by 9.5 percent, citing strong sales in Japan and overseas, but the truck maker said it would finish in the red for the year due to special losses associated with the aid package.
The company now expects a net loss of 44 billion yen for the year compared to its previous forecast of a two billion yen profit. Last year it posted a loss of 3.35 billion yen.
Nissan Diesel, one of Japan's weakest truck makers, is struggling under a pile of interest-bearing debt -- at 390 billion yen roughly equal to its revenues last year -- left over from the bubble years after which domestic truck demand sank.
The aid package would reduce Nissan Diesel's debt to around 200 billion yen by the end of this business year next March, the company said.
The plan made no mention of French auto maker Renault , but Nissan Diesel President Iwao Nakamura said that Renault was considering reducing its stake of 22.5 percent.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported earlier that Renault had basically agreed to halve its holding.
Before the announcement the truck maker's shares ended up 5.26 percent at 240 yen, compared to a 0.10 percent fall in the Nikkei average .
Nissan Diesel's shares have quadrupled from an all-time low of 62 yen marked in October, mainly due to a surge in truck sales on replacement buying ahead of the introduction of stricter emissions regulations in parts of Japan later this year. ($1=110.79 yen)