Citigroup Inc launched a tender offer for scandal-tainted Nikko Cordial Corp yesterday, a spokeswoman for the US bank said, two days after raising its offer price by 26 percent to dispel shareholder opposition.
Citigroup, which owned a 4.9 percent stake in Japan's third-largest brokerage at the end of last year, will conduct the tender offer for the remaining shares through April 26 in a deal worth up to US$13.35 billion, the company said in a statement.
Citigroup initiated the offer for Nikko Cordial on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, said Mika Nemoto, a spokeswoman for the company's Japan unit.
The purchase, if realized, would be the biggest foreign acquisition of a Japanese securities company and is expected to strengthen Citigroup's foothold for selling mutual funds and other services in the world's second-largest economy.
On Tuesday, the boards of the two companies agreed to raise the offer price for Nikko Cordial 26 percent to ¥1,700 (US$14.49) a share after the Japanese brokerage's largest shareholders rejected the initial price of ¥1,350 a share as too low.
Douglas Peterson, the head of Citigroup's Japanese operations, said on Wednesday the bank would not raise that offer further, calling the bid price "fair and firm."
Citigroup also raised the offer price after the Tokyo Stock Exchange announced it would keep Nikko Cordial's shares listed despite an accounting scandal last year.
Nikko Cordial's shares finished trading yesterday down 0.29 percent at ¥1,685.
The Japanese brokerage, the country's third-largest, was fined ¥500 million yen on charges of falsifying financial statements, the largest fine ever levied by Japan's financial authorities.
Separately, Citigroup aims to expand its staffing in China by one-third this year as it ramps up business in the fast-growing loan market, China's state press reported yesterday.
Citigroup plans to add about 1,000 workers in China this year, boosting the number of staff to 4,000, the lender's China chief, Richard Stanley, told the China Daily.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS