The Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan on Wednesday came under the control of New LTCB Partners CV (NLP), a consortium of U.S. and European financial institutions, after all the bank's shares were sold to the group.
The Tokyo-based bank's return to private ownership ends nearly 16 months under state control. The LTCB was taken over by the government in October 1998 as it collapsed under a mountain of bad debts.
The bank's new shareholders and board will hold their first meetings today to map out management plans under Chief Executive Officer Masamoto Yashiro.
Yashiro is a former Japan representative of Citicorp, of the United States.
NLP paid 1 billion yen for around 2.4 billion shares in the LTCB, bought from the government-backed Deposit Insurance Corp. The consortium also invested 120 billion yen in a new share issue by the bank.
On June 5, the post-sale LTCB will be renamed Shinsei Bank. It will seek to relist on stock exchanges.
The consortium faces a number of challenges in restructuring the LTCB, including the loss of some 1,000 employees since the bank was taken over by the government.
NLP was selected to take over the LTCB in September 1999 by the government's Financial Reconstruction Commission.