The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Thursday effectively named a consortium led by Softbank Corp., an Internet-oriented Tokyo-based holding firm, as the buyer of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank. The government aims to finalize a basic agreement with the consortium -- which also includes leasing company Orix Corp. and Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. -- by the end of April. A new NCB is expected to start operations as early as June. The sale of the NCB will be the second transfer of a nationalized bank to private sector control, following the sale of the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, planned for next week. The sale of the NCB will effectively put an end to the state-control program for failed large banks enacted in October 1998 during the banking-sector crisis. The new NCB is expected to help revitalize the nation's economy as its business strategy will focus on financing venture firms as well as Internet banking. The Softbank-led group "is expected to introduce new types of financial transactions ... through such means as the Internet, which in turn would greatly stimulate the management of domestic financial institutions," said Michio Ochi, chairman of the FRC. The Tokyo-based long-term credit bank was placed under state control in December 1998 when it went under after accumulating huge nonperforming loans. As part of the takeover, the Softbank-led consortium will buy NCB stocks for 1 billion yen and invest 100 billion yen in the new bank. Besides the three firms, regional banks and foreign banks may also put up some capital, the FRC said. The consortium will also ask for an injection of 240 billion yen of public funds into the bank's capital base. While the NCB has some 90 billion yen in unrealized profits on stockholdings, the three-company group will inject the funds into the new bank's capital. That will bring its capital adequacy ratio to around 13 percent, comparable with those of healthy banks. More than 3.2 trillion yen in taxpayers' money will have to be spent to make up for the NCB's capital deficit before the bank is sold to the consortium, Ochi said in a news conference. The new NCB will be headed by Tadayo Honma, a former executive director of the Bank of Japan. The presidents of the consortium's three firms, including Softbank's Masayoshi Son, an Internet-business guru, will serve as independent directors. The new bank will continue lending to some 2,600 of the NCB's 3,500 corporate customers, the FRC said. The FRC chose the Softbank-led group over U.S. investment fund Cerberus because it would make the burden on taxpayers smaller, Ochi said. The LTCB, the first nationalized bank in postwar Japan, will be purchased by an international consortium led by Ripplewood Holdings LLC of the U.S. The bank, renamed Shinsei Bank, meaning "new birth,"
