Japan Post Plans Sale of $4.2 Billion Stake in Banking Unit
(Bloomberg) -- Japan Post Holdings Co. plans to sell a stake in Japan Post Bank Co. that could raise ¥630 billion ($4.2 billion), the latest disposal in the former state-run giant's decade-long privatization efforts.
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The company will sell as many as 416.1 million shares at a discount of 2% to 4% of the stock's market price, according to a term sheet of the deal. Japan Post Bank plans to buy back as much as ¥60 billion of shares and cancel them.
The sale could bring the holding company's stake in the banking unit to below the 50% threshold it had pledged to do by the end of fiscal year ending March. That would give more autonomy to the bank, which is currently largely banned from lending business and manages most of its assets in securities such as foreign and domestic bonds.
'The reduction of Japan Post's shareholding ratio will give the company more freedom when tackling new projects and will make it easier to expand profit-earning opportunities,' said Naoki Fujiwara, senior fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management. 'The stock price level is undervalued, the dividend yield is high, and there is a sense of security that the company will not go out of business, so there may be a certain level of demand for buying.'
Japan Post Bank shares rose 1.2% to close at ¥1,524 in Tokyo on Thursday.
The Japanese government broke the former state monopoly into three separate companies — parent, banking unit and insurer — in a ¥1.4 trillion three-pronged initial public offering in 2015. The Ministry of Finance still owns more than a third of Japan Post Holdings, which in turn holds 61.5% of Japan Post Bank, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Japan Post Holdings has also been selling shares in its insurance unit, as required by law.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Daiwa Securities Group Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. are among banks arranging the deal.
--With assistance from Nao Sano.
(Updates with fund manager's comment in the fourth paragraph)
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