Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui to buy stake in Goldman Sachs: report
Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 24-Sep-2008 11:04 hrs
File photo shows a man making a phone call in front of a branch of Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui bank in Tokyo. The banking group is set to invest several billion dollars in Goldman Sachs, becoming the latest Japanese bank to come to the rescue of a troubled Wall Street giant, a report has said.
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is set to invest several billion dollars in Goldman Sachs, becoming the latest Japanese bank to come to the rescue of a troubled Wall Street giant, a report said Wednesday.
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Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., one of Japan's top three banks, is expected to invest "several hundred billion yen" in Goldman, the Kyodo News agency reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
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A spokeswoman for the Japanese bank had no immediate comment on the report.
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Goldman has been under intense pressure to find a merger partner as a credit crunch reshapes the global financial landscape, pushing Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy and forcing other Wall Street giants into marriages with rivals.
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Japan's top broker Nomura Holdings is snapping up Lehman Brothers' operations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is buying 20 percent of ailing US banking giant Morgan Stanley.
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Japanese banks have not escaped unscathed from the financial crisis but they have been less hard hit than many foreign peers, due to conservative business strategies in the wake of a domestic banking crisis in the 1990s. — AFP
