Japan stocks fall as NTT bid for wireless unit rattles telcos

Trend Micro Incorporated

29/09/2020 03:20

By Stanley White
    TOKYO, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Japanese shares fell on Tuesday
for the first time in three sessions as telecom major NTT's
 9432.T  bid to take complete ownership of its mobile unit, NTT
Docomo  9437.T , weighed on rival mobile network operators.
    The Nikkei 225 Index  .N225  fell 0.55% to 23,382.89 by
01:44 GMT. The broader Topix  .TOPX  fell 0.83% to 1,648.07.  
    NTT said it was looking at taking full control of its
wireless carrier business, NTT Docomo, in a tender offer that
could be worth around 4 trillion yen ($38 billion).  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2GP38T
    The buyout will be discussed at a board meeting on Tuesday,
NTT said in a statement after the Nikkei newspaper reported the
deal. The value of the 34% of NTT Docomo's shares not owned by
NTT is based on a 30% premium to Monday's closing price.
    NTT Docomo's shares were untraded with a glut of buy orders,
while NTT's shares fell 5.18%.
    Rival mobile carriers also fell as the acquisition is
expected to pile on pressure to lower mobile phone fees and
increase competition for the roll out of 5G services. Shares of
KDDI Corp  9433.T  lost 4.21%, while shares of SoftBank Corp
 9434.T  fell 5.19%.
    Japan's new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has made
lowering mobile costs a policy priority, and the government is
NTT's biggest shareholder.
    Japanese stocks also fell as many shares went ex-dividend
before the next round of corporate earnings.
    The stocks that gained the most among the top 30 core Topix
names were venture fund SoftBank Group Corp  9984.T , up 2.3%,
followed by Keyence Corp  6861.T , up 2.25%.
    There were 38 advancers on the Nikkei index against 182
decliners.
    The volume of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's
main board  .TOPX  was 0.41 billion, compared to the average of
1.14 billion in the past 30 days.

 (Reporting by Stanley White;
Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
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