NCB deal denied by regulators.
Here is the story from Bloomberg.
Japan Official Denies Reported Softbank Accord on
Nippon Credit
By Takahiko Hyuga and Jason Singer
Tokyo, June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese regulators denied local media reports
that it agreed with a Softbank Corp.-led group's plan to take over the failed
Nippon Credit Bank Ltd.
``I am a key person on this deal; we have not reached any agreement and we
are in the middle of negotiations,'' said Shoji Mori, secretary general of the
Financial Reconstruction Commission, the government body which is
overseeing the deregulation of the country's financial industry.
Softbank Corp., Japan's largest Internet investor, Tokio- Marine Fire &
Insurance Co. and Orix Corp. lost their exclusive rights to negotiate with the
government on May 31, failing to meet a second deadline to agree on a
purchase of the nationwide lender.
Reports in the Nihon Keizai newspaper, the Asahi newspaper, Kyodo News
service and others said the Softbank group and FRC had agreed on the
takeover and would announce details as early as the coming week.
Softbank officials were unavailable for immediate comment.
The Softbank group had asked the government to set aside more than 100
billion yen ($926 million) to protect against potential bad loans, and conceded
after the government said it wouldn't put any added burden on taxpayers, the
Nihon Keizai newspaper reported yesterday.
The Financial Reconstruction Commission, set up in 1998 to oversee the
cleanup of debt-strapped financial institutions, said it would start accepting
new bids for Nippon Credit on June 1, though it would continue talks with the
Softbank group.
The Softbank partners said in a May 31 statement that it would ``continue with
sincerity its negotiations with the Financial Reconstruction Commission.''
The group won the right to exclusive negotiations on terms of the 100 billion
yen purchase in February, beating Cerberus Partners LP, a U.S. buyout fund
that had submitted a higher offer. Softbank missed its first deadline at the end
of April and was granted a one-month extension.
The talks broke down again on May 31 because Softbank had changed some
of the terms from the initial agreement, Mori said at the time.
``Although Softbank agreed in February with the government on a scheme for
the responsibility of collateral and how to assess bad debts, the scheme they
are proposing now is different,'' Mori said on May 31.
Nippon Credit on Friday said it had received a more-than- expected 3.24 trillion
yen of public funds in the year ended in March. The amount needed to
maintain the bank's solvency increased because of a decline in the value of its
assets such as real estate and stock holdings, Nippon Credit President
Takuya Fujii said Friday.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. advised the Softbank group, and Nippon Credit
was advised by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. Executives at both firms
weren't available to comment. |
