Sumitomo Trust & Banking and Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings are planning to merge and integrate their operations in early 2011 – reported Bloomberg, citing Nikkei newspaper. Hitoshi Tsunekage and Kazuo Tanabe, presidents of Sumitomo and Chuo Mitsui respectively, are said to have reached an agreement and are expected to submit a report on the merger to Japan’s Financial Services Agency very soon.
Based on figures as of June 30, 2009, combinedly the firms have JPY36.3 trillion assets. Reportedly, this merger is going to create a major banking group just behind Resona Holdings, which has JPY39.8 trillion assets as of the end of June.
According to Nikkei, Chuo Mitsui intends to repay about $2.18 billion in public funds before merging. Sumitomo Trust will be the surviving firm, with the new entity including both Sumitomo and Mitsui names.
Mitsushige Akino, who oversees $450m assets in Tokyo at Ichiyoshi Investment Management, said: “To survive the global competition, a merger makes sense. If they are going forward with this merger, it’s positive news for the overall banking industry as we haven’t had such big merger recently,” reported the news agency.
