SBI's Shinsei bid lifts Japan financial shares on consolidation hopes
10/09/2021 08:36
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Japanese financial group SBI
Holdings's 8473.T unsolicited bid for Shinsei Bank 8303.T
sparked a rally in Japanese financial shares on Friday on hopes
it could accelerate further consolidation among struggling
Japanese banks.
SBI, led by Yoshitaka Kitao, formerly of Softbank Group's
9984.T Masayoshi Son, has publicly said it would aim to become
Japan's fourth largest banking group and has already bought
stakes in several Japanese regional banks.
As Shinsei Bank has so far not endorsed the move, investors
believe its unsolicited bid to increase its stake to a near
majority could turn into a hostile bid.
SBI already owns about 20% of Shinsei, a small Tokyo-based
lender that took over a collapsed bank during Japan's financial
crisis in the late 1990s. The government still holds an about
18% stake in it.
Tokyo Stock Exchange's bank index .IBNKS.T rose 1.62%,
above 1.3% gains in broad Topix .TOPX . Shinsei Bank jumped
20.8% as SBI offered to 2,000 yen per Shinsei share, a 39%
premium over Thursday's closing, for a total of 116.4 billion
yen ($1.06 billion). urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2QB0CJ
Shares of regional banks, including those in which SBI
already has a stake, gained sharply. Shizuoka-based Suruga Bank
8358.T rose 5.0% while Sendai-based Jimoto Holdings 7161.T ,
of which SBI is the biggest shareholder, gained 4.4%.
"Hopes of more consolidation appear to be driving all this,"
said Taku Ito, chief portfolio manager at Nissay Asset
Management.
SBI Holdings also gained 7.6%, its biggest rise since March
23 last year, while securities brokerage index .ISECU.T added
2.9%.
Japanese financial shares, particularly bank shares, have
underperformed for many years, burdened by a shrinking
population and near-zero or negative interest rates. Most of
them trade below their book value.
SBI, the financial unit of SoftBank Group until the tech
firm exited in 2006, owns the country's largest online
brokerage, an online bank and an asset manager.
But some investors worry SBI may be overpaying.
"I am a bit surprised to see SBI paying that much to acquire
Shinsei. I cannot visualise a big synergy," said Yasuo Sakuma,
chief investment officer at Libra Investments.
(Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; editing by David Evans)
((hideyuki.sano@thomsonreuters.com; +81 3 4520 1195;))