U.S. financial services giant Citigroup Inc., in the hunt to acquire Nikko Cordial Corp., said Tuesday it intends to raise its purchasing price to 1,700 yen per share from its initial offer of 1,350 yen.
Citigroup's announcement came a day after the Tokyo Stock Exchange decided not to delist Nikko Cordial for accounting fraud -- a move that may have saved the brokerage's reputation but jeopardized Citigroup's bid to purchase its shares for a price that many investors claimed was too low.
"Citigroup revised the price for public tender offer since we decided that the prospect of Nikko Cordial improved because it was removed from the monitoring post in the TSE, Osaka Securities Exchange and Nagoya Stock Exchange," Citigroup said in a statement.