TOKYO (Reuters) -Shares in Japan Post Bank slid more than 6% on Wednesday, a day after Reuters reported that parent Japan Post Holdings was considering selling around a third of its stake in the bank, which could be worth nearly $9 billion.
A move to sell the stake would mark the first such sale since Japan Post and its two financial businesses – Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance – were listed in 2015 in the country’s biggest privatisation in about three decades.
Japan’s national postal service currently owns around 89% of the bank and is aiming to reduce the stake to around 60% by the end of March, while the bank is considering buying back some of the shares, sources told Reuters.
The deal would be worth around 1.2 trillion yen ($8.9 billion) at current market prices.
Responding to the report, the two companies said on Wednesday they were considering various options but that the reported decision had not been made.
“We will make a formal announcement as soon as any decision is made,” they said in similarly worded statements.
Shares in Japan Post Holdings were down 2.0% in mid-morning Tokyo trade while the benchmark Nikkei index was down 1.5%.
As part of its privatisation, Japan Post Holdings was set to reduce its stake in both the bank and insurance divisions to 50% or less by the end of March 2026. It reached that target for the insurance unit in 2021.
A reduction in Japan Post Holdings’ stake in the banking unit to around 60% would help Japan Post Bank to meet Tokyo Stock Exchange requirements to be listed in the top section of the bourse.
($1 = 134.7000 yen)
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Chris Reese, Kenneth Maxwell and Sonali Paul)
