Daiwa to Buy Out SMFG from Banking Venture

Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group plans to buy out Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group from their investment banking joint venture, a source familiar with the matter said.

Daiwa and SMFG are in talks to end the venture, Daiwa Securities SMBC, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity as no decision has been made public.

Daiwa Securities, Japan’s No. 2 brokerage, owns 60 percent of the venture, while SMFG, Japan’s No. 3 bank, owns the rest.

Daiwa will likely pay about $2.2 billion for SMFG’s stake, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The fate of the venture has been in doubt after SMFG agreed earlier this year to buy Citigroup’s brokerage and key investment banking operations in Japan, including businesses that overlap with Daiwa Securities SMBC.

A spokesman for Daiwa declined to comment. No one at SMFG was immediately available for comment.

However, even after the new deal, Sumitomo Mitsui will continue to be Daiwa’s main lender, and their loans and other transactions will remain in place, the Nikkei said.

The companies are in talks to see if Sumitomo Mitsui could lend about 100 billion yen to Daiwa to help it finance the buyout, the paper said.