(Corrects to remove the word "yen" in first paragraph. The figure is in dollars.)
* Daito Trust to buy 33 pct of own shares, buying out founder
* To pay up to a total of 211.7 bln yen, cancel shares
* Founder Tada had in past sought to sell his stake to funds (Adds details)
TOKYO, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Daito Trust Construction, a Japanese apartment building developer, said it would spend up to $2.6 billion to buy a stake held by its founder and retire those shares.
Daito said it would buy a 31 percent stake owned by a company controlled by founder and chairman, Katsumi Tada, who had in 2008 tried to sell his stake, attracting a few bidders including a group led by a U.S. real estate investment firm Aetos Capital.
Daito said on Monday it would spend up to 211.7 billion yen ($2.58 billion) to buy a total stake of 33.08 percent in the buyout through a tender offer at 5,445 yen per share.
That represents a 5 percent discount to Monday's closing price of 5,750 yen. ($1=82.10 Yen) (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Nathan Layne)