The government said Friday it completed the sale of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank to a consortium led by Internet investor Softbank Corp., ending 21 months of state control of the bank.
The takeover marks the first time that a nonfinancial firm has gained a foothold in the once exclusive banking sector. The move is expected to spur competition in the financial services industry, analysts said.
The quasi-governmental Deposit Insurance Corp. sold all outstanding NCB shares to the Softbank-led group Friday after the Financial Reconstruction Commission gave final approval earlier in the day, officials said.
The reborn bank will be headed by Tadayo Homma, a former executive director of the Bank of Japan, and will be renamed Aozora Bank in January next year. Aozora is the Japanese word for "blue sky."
The Softbank consortium paid 1 billion yen to purchase about 2.5 billion NCB common shares from the DIC. It also paid 100 billion yen for newly issued shares to bolster the bank's capital base.
Softbank holds a 48.88 percent stake in NCB, while Orix Corp. and Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. have 14.99 percent each, the consortium said. Foreign firms, including Cerberus Group, Pacific Capital Group and Lehman Brothers, have a combined 12.77 percent stake, and the remainder is held by 96 Japanese regional banks and other firms.
Prior to the takeover, the government injected more than 3 trillion yen in taxpayers' money to clean up excess liabilities and balance the bank's books.