The disposal of preferred shares in the Japanese regional lender is part of the Japanese global investment bank’s strategy to quit private equity investments and focus on boosting profit growth.
Sources familiar with the matter were quoted by Bloomberg as saying that Nomura Capital Investment is expected to start selling nearly 8,000 preferred shares next week for a price of JPY2.58m each share, which has been owned by Ashikaga.
During the financial crisis of 2008, Nomura acquired 46% of common shares of Tochigi-based Ashikaga from Japanese government, and now gearing up to divest the certain stake through an initial public offering (IPO) or through mergers and acquisitions.
Not only Nomura, but also many global financial behemoths including Bank of America have been offloading their unprofitable assets and non-core operations, buoyed by the tightening regulatory pressure for capital and liquidity requirements.
In a statement released on 31 May 2013, Ashikaga said that it will repurchase approximately 10,000 preferred shares from investors and cancel them to reduce costs for dividend payments and increase cash reserves.
In December 2012, Nomura offloaded a stake in the UK housing estate company Annington Homes for £914m ($1.4bn), and the bank divested Japanese family restaurant chain Skylark Co to Bain Capital and Tsubaki Nakashima to Carlyle Group, in 2011.
Based in Tokyo and with regional headquarters in Hong Kong, London, and New York, Nomura caters various services optimized to the specific requirements of individual, institutional, corporate and government clients through an international network in over 30 nations.
