Latest news with #NTT
Business Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
NTT Docomo to buy SBI's net bank for 420 billion yen in cutthroat market
[TOKYO] NTT Docomo is buying SBI Holdings' online bank in a 420 billion yen (S$3.7 billion) deal to shore up the Japanese mobile carrier's financial offerings in a hyper-competitive market. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone's mobile unit will launch a tender offer for SBI Sumishin Net Bank, offering 4,900 yen per share – a 49 per cent premium to the online bank's closing price on May 28. At the conclusion of the deal, Docomo aims to own 65.81 per cent of the online bank, which will delist. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking will continue to hold 34.19 per cent of SBI Sumishin, the companies said in a statement on Thursday (May 29). Shares of SBI Sumishin Net Bank surged by a record 21.3 per cent after local outlets including the Nikkei reported the news earlier. NTT's stock price rose 0.6 per cent while SBI Holdings gained 7.8 per cent. The move is part of a capital alliance between the state-backed telecom group and SBI Holdings, where NTT will invest 110 billion yen in the venture capital fund operator for a 8.25 per cent stake. NTT and SBI Holdings will co-develop new services from asset management to insurance, while NTT Data Group will provide support for SBI Holdings' financial services, executives said. Docomo, which has close to half of Japan's mobile phone market, has been slow to bolster its financial asset offerings and services compared with its rivals. That's as nimbler competitors have gradually eaten into its dominant share. Japan's third-largest carrier SoftBank made the country's biggest payments app PayPay a subsidiary in 2022 and recently announced a three-way partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking's credit card operations. No 2 mobile provider KDDI has its own financial unit. Online shopping mall operator Rakuten Group has started a mobile unit, seeking to expand the reach of its lucrative financial arms via the telecom business. The acquisition targets existing Docomo customers rather than attract new ones and is a defensive move to prevent cancellations, said Naoki Fujiwara, senior fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management. If the carrier can expand into areas like investment trusts, it may create additional revenue, he added. BLOOMBERG
Japan Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
NTT and SBI agree on business and capital tie-up
NTT and online financial group SBI Holdings said Thursday that they plan to forge a business and capital tie-up. NTT will acquire new SBI Holdings shares to be issued in a third-party allotment program, it said in a statement. Through the alliance, the two sides hope to work together to merge the two worlds of telecommunications and finance. As part of the tie-up, mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo, an NTT subsidiary, will make SBI Holdings' online lending arm, SBI Sumishin Net Bank, a consolidated subsidiary. NTT Docomo hopes to take around two-thirds of SBI Sumishin's shares through a tender offer, in order to enter the banking industry, company sources said earlier. SBI Holdings plans to sell its 34% equity stake in SBI Sumishin to NTT Docomo, while Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, which also has a 34% stake, hopes to remain a shareholder, the sources said. With the mobile phone industry hit by a decrease in income from telecommunications fees, NTT Docomo's three major rivals are using their banking units to expand their reward point-centered economic blocs. NTT Docomo, which had fallen behind the rivals, has been considering its next move. President Yoshiaki Maeda, who took the helm of the company in June last year, has said an entry into the banking business was a necessary step to expand its business. In other segments of the financial sector, NTT Docomo brought under its wing online brokerage house Monex in January 2024 and personal loan provider Orix Credit, currently Docomo Finance, in March of that year.
CNA
2 days ago
- Business
- CNA
Japan's NTT takes 8.91% stake in SBI Holdings under capital alliance deal
TOKYO :Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone will invest about 110 billion yen ($755.49 million) in SBI Holdings to acquire an 8.91 per cent stake, as the two companies aim to integrate their digital technology and financial services. Under the deal, SBI said it will issue 27 million new shares to Japan's largest telecommunications firm through a third-party share allotment. ($1 = 145.6000 yen)
2 days ago
- Business
NTT, SBI Eye Biz, Capital Tie-Up
News from Japan Economy May 29, 2025 15:55 (JST) Tokyo, May 29 (Jiji Press)--Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and online financial group SBI Holdings Inc. plan to forge a business and capital tie-up, it was learned Thursday. NTT will acquire new SBI Holdings shares to be issued in a third-party allotment program. Through the anticipated alliance, the two sides hope to work together to merge the two worlds of telecommunications and finance. As part of the tie-up, mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo Inc., an NTT subsidiary, is expected to make SBI Holdings' online lending arm, SBI Sumishin Net Bank, a consolidated subsidiary. NTT Docomo hopes to take around two-thirds of SBI Sumishin's shares through a tender offer, in order to enter the banking industry. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
Japan Today
3 days ago
- Business
- Japan Today
A nostalgic look back at the half-decade when Japan was No. 1, sort of
In 2023, Japan's nominal GDP (gross domestic product) dropped one notch, to fourth place in the world, as Germany moved up to occupy the third slot. Japan's GDP had exceeded Germany's for nearly half a century up to then. "The figures have been influenced to some degree by the yen-dollar exchange rate," points out history researcher Ban Atobe, "But considering that Germany's population (and working population in particular) is two-thirds that of Japan's, the drop has serious implications." "Japan's nominal GDP had been surpassed by China in 2010. While this should not be surprising considering China's population is about 10 times greater than Japan's. And Japan still leads China on a per capita basis. But the drop overall from third to fourth place can be seen as indicative of the country's economic decline," is how Atobe sees it. The news wasn't always bad, however. "The members of Gen Z might not be aware of it," says Atobe, "but there was a time when Japan's economic power led the world." He's not exaggerating. In 1987, Japan's per capita GDP reached $21,248, surpassing the $20,001 of the U.S. by a significant margin. "What would have been no more than a pipe dream by the heroic mid-19th century figures who brought feudal Japan into the modern era became a reality," Atobe observed. In terms of the value of their common shares, around 30 companies out of the world's top 50 were Japanese, with Japan's NTT holding the top position. The Nikkei-Dow average reached 38,915 yen -- with the total value of shares roughly 15 times that of Wall Street's. By one metric, the assessed property values of the 23 central wards of Tokyo were said to have surpassed that of the entire continental United States. There was even talk of Sony acquiring Apple Computer. "I wish we'd done it," a former Sony executive was quoted as saying. During the 1970s through the 1980s, an obscure Kyoto-based company named Nintendo emerged from nowhere to dominate the game market. By 2016 its Pocket Monsters had eclipsed Disney's Mickey Mouse and ranked world's first, with revenues of $92.1 billion. Remember the 1985 hit film "Back to the Future"? There's a scene in which time traveler Michael J Fox tells people back in 1955, "All the good stuff comes from Japan now." The "good stuff" Fox was referring to included items like Casio wristwatches, Aiwa personal stereo players and JVC video camcorders. Then there was the Honda Civic, whose lean-burn engine easily met the tough new emissions standards while U.S. manufacturers were still struggling. Japan also impacted significantly on the world's diet. Along with sweet, sour, salty and bitter, Japanese discovered a fifth flavor category called umami (savoriness). Described as a brothy or meaty quality, it adds depth and complexity to flavors. The Ajinomoto Group, which pioneered monosodium glutamate seasoning that imparts umami, now operates subsidies around the world. Then there's Nissin's cup noodles, which have taken the world by storm. In February 1972, shortly after its introduction, TV viewers watched news coverage of the siege of the Asama-Sanso, a violent weeklong hostage stand-off between the riot police and armed student radicals at a villa in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture. While the contents of boxed meals froze in Karuizawa's subzero outdoor temperatures, the policemen on site could be seen consuming hot meals thanks to the Nissin noodles. Not long afterwards, the noodles were dispensed from vending machines, which also supplied boiling water. They appealed in particular to the youth market and were sold packaged with plastic forks instead of chopsticks. "It became fashionable for guys to be seen eating walkaway noodles," entertainer LaSalle Ishii recalls. Unfortunately, Shukan Taishu notes, the myopic trend of paying short shrift to academia and science continues, with the House of Representatives on May 9 passing a bill that will privatize the Science Council of Japan. Will the sun, Shukan Taishu wonders, ever rise again? Let's keep hoping that the Japanese people, who achieved a miraculous recovery from the ashes of war, will once again demonstrate their latent strengths. © Japan Today
