TOKYO : Japan Post Holdings said on Wednesday it’s considering “various options” after Reuters reported on Tuesday it was looking into selling around a third of its stake in Japan Post Bank, a sale that could be worth nearly $9 billion.
Japan’s national postal service currently owns around 89 per cent of the bank and is aiming to reduce the stake to around 60 per cent by the end of March, while the bank is considering buying back some of the shares, sources told Reuters.
Shares in Japan Post Bank slide more than 6 per cent on Wednesday after the Tokyo stock market opened. Japan Post Holdings was down 1.8 per cent while the benchmark Nikkei index was down 0.9 per cent.
“The company is considering various options from the perspective of capital policy, but there is no truth that we have decided whether to conduct the reported measure, the scale or the timing of it,” Japan Post and Japan Post Bank said in separately issued, similarly worded statements.
“We will make a formal announcement as soon as any decision is made,” they said.
A move to sell the stake would mark the first such sale of shares 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.