Shares of major Japanese banks and brokerages jumped yesterday as investors cheered a global shopping spree by Tokyo’s financial giants in the wake of a historic Wall Street shake-up.
Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan’s biggest brokerage, said late on Tuesday it would buy Lehman Brothers’ operations in Europe and the Middle East, adding to the Asian operations it bought a day earlier from Lehman, which filed for bankruptcy last week.
Nomura’s shares jumped 5.2 percent to ¥1,505 (US$14.02), following a nearly 10 percent rise in the stock on Monday. Japanese markets were closed on Tuesday for a holiday.
Top Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc advanced 4.2 percent to ¥936 after it announced late on Monday that it had agreed to buy up to a 20 percent stake in US investment bank Morgan Stanley.
And Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, Japan’s third-largest bank, added 1.2 percent to ¥684,000 on media reports yesterday that it was considering investing several hundred billion yen in Goldman Sachs.
Sumitomo Mitsui said no decision had been reached at this time and declined to elaborate.
The gains came as the overall Tokyo market edged higher; the benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.2 percent.
Compared with their US counterparts, Japanese financial institutions have emerged from the subprime crisis relatively unscathed. Conservative lending strategies, as well as lessons learned from Japan’s financial crash of the 1990s, are now beginning to pay dividends, analysts say.
“The Japanese have recovered from their own debacle in the 1990s and early 2000s and now have reasonable amounts of capital but not domestic growth,” said David Threadgold, banking analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton in Tokyo.
“The Americans have squandered unimaginable amounts of money and are now looking around the world at who can help fill the hole,” he said.
Nomura did not disclose a price tag for Lehman’s European assets, but its purchase of the investment bank’s Asian operations was valued at around US$225 million, one person familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Nomura CEO Kenichi Watanabe called the Asian purchase “a once in a generation opportunity” and said the two transactions would help Nomura realize its vision to be a world-class investment bank.
“Our ability to capitalize on this opportunity in spite of such volatile markets reflects our financial strength and demonstrates how well we have managed the credit crisis,” Watanabe said in a statement. “This deal is validation for our strategy.”
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
NEW YEAR’S ADDRESS: ‘No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path,’ William Lai said, urging progress ‘without looking back’ President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday urged parties across the political divide to democratically resolve conflicts that have plagued domestic politics within Taiwan’s constitutional system. In his first New Year’s Day address since becoming president on May 20 last year, Lai touched on several issues, including economic and security challenges, but a key emphasis was on the partisan wrangling that has characterized his first seven months in office. Taiwan has transformed from authoritarianism into today’s democracy and that democracy is the future, Lai said. “No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path for Taiwan,” he said. “The only choice
CORRUPTION: Twelve other people were convicted on charges related to giving illegal benefits, forgery and money laundering, with sentences ranging from one to five years The Yilan District Court yesterday found Yilan County Commissioner Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) guilty of corruption, sentencing her to 12 years and six months in prison. The Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office in 2022 indicted 10 government officials and five private individuals, including Lin, her daughter and a landowner. Lin was accused of giving illegal favors estimated to be worth NT$2.4 million (US$73,213) in exchange for using a property to conduct activities linked to the 2020 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential and legislative election campaigns. Those favors included exempting some property and construction firms from land taxes and building code contraventions that would have required
TECH CORRIDOR: Technology centers and science parks in the south would be linked, bolstering the AI, semiconductor, biotech, drone, space and smart agriculture industries The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a “Southern Silicon Valley” project to promote the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor industry in Chiayi County, Tainan, Pingtung County and Kaohsiung. The plan would build an integrated “S-shaped semiconductor industry corridor” that links technology centers and science parks in the south, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said yesterday after a Cabinet meeting. The project would bolster the AI, semiconductor, biotech, drone, space and smart agriculture industries, she said. The proposed tech corridor would be supported by government efforts to furnish computing power, workforce, supply chains and policy measures that encourage application and integration
RSS