Maxwell’s Heirs Will Sell Berlitz to Japanese Firm : Publishing: The $265-million deal signals the family’s intent to move ahead with the late magnate’s plan to sell assets to reduce debt.

LONDON —  The family of Robert Maxwell, acting just two days after the death of the publishing magnate, said Thursday that it plans to sell its majority stake in language company Berlitz International for $265 million.

Maxwell’s son, Kevin, now chairman and chief executive of Maxwell Communication Corp., said the holding company will sell its stake to Fukutake Publishing Co. of Japan, which specializes in home study programs.

The Maxwell company holds 10.6 million shares of Berlitz, or 55.6% of the company, which Fukutake will buy for $25 a share.

The move by Maxwell’s heirs appears to signal that they intend to move ahead with their late father’s program to sell assets in an effort to reduce the empire’s huge debt, estimated at $3.5 billion.

Despite the announced sale of Berlitz, Maxwell Communication shares lost 38% of their value Thursday, the first day they have been traded since Maxwell’s death.

The stock closed at $1.36, off 83 cents. The move wiped $530 million off the value of the company, 61% of which is owned by the Maxwell family.

Maxwell’s other major publicly traded company, Mirror Group Newspapers, went the other way, jumping 51 cents, or 37%, to $1.86.

Maxwell Communication, which controls the U.S.-based publisher Macmillan Inc., was the focus of concern when it said its debt was $2.5 billion.

“I think the drop has been exaggerated,” Kevin Maxwell said of the decline in the stock price.

Maxwell paid $2.7 billion for Macmillan in 1988, a price that many analysts said was too high. The company would fetch far less in today’s business climate.

Berlitz stock, trading for the first time since Maxwell’s death Tuesday, closed down 62.5 cents at $19 a share in New York Stock Exchange trading.

A Maxwell Communication statement said officials of the debt-encumbered empire are discussing further selloffs with various parties.

“The board considers that, provided satisfactory prices can be negotiated, it is in shareholders’ interests for the board to pursue these discussions,” the statement said. “Accordingly, the proposals regarding the de-merger of the group’s U.S. operations are now less likely to proceed than had hitherto been envisaged.”

The company said Macmillan President David Shaffer has been appointed chief operating officer of Maxwell Communication, with day-to-day responsibility for worldwide operations.

In another development, insurers said several syndicates had provided a total of $35 million in coverage on Maxwell’s life--but the bulky, hard-driving publisher might not have had coverage in the event of a heart attack.

Maxwell, 68, disappeared from his yacht Tuesday morning. His body was found floating in the Atlantic near the Canary Islands.

Spanish authorities released the body Wednesday after provisional autopsy findings indicated that he died of natural causes.

The death certificate said he died of cardio-respiratory arrest. Further tests will be carried out in Seville, Spain, and Oxford, England, before a conclusive ruling on the cause of death is reached in about a week.

Maxwell will be buried Sunday in Jerusalem.