UPDATE 1-Nomura unit to buy NikkoCiti for 20 bln yen - Nikkei
July 1 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (8710.T) (C.N) is in the final stage of talks to sell its Japanese trust bank, NikkoCiti Trust & Banking Corp, to a Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T) subsidiary for an estimated 20 billion yen ($210 million), the Nikkei business daily reported.
The purchase would transform the Nomura unit into one of the nation's biggest trust banks in terms of investment trust assets they oversee, the daily said.
Citigroup and Nomura Trust appear to have reached an agreement whereby Citigroup would bear any liabilities related to NikkoCiti's exposure to loans originated by the now-bankrupt SFCG Co, it said.
In May, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc's (8306.T) trust banking unit cancelled its planned $257 million purchase of NikkoCiti, judging it would not be able to get enough advantage from the purchase after it lost a bid to buy Citigroup's other key Japanese units.
The Nomura unit, which plans to make NikkoCiti a subsidiary as early as October, handles about 10.4 trillion yen in investment trust assets, compared with about 4.9 trillion yen for NikkoCiti, the daily said.
The purchase would make Nomura Trust fourth in the industry, behind Mitsubishi UFJ Trust, Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co (8403.T) and Resona Holdings Inc's (8308.T) Resona Bank, the daily said.
($1=95.41 Yen) (Reporting by Abhinav Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)
