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Japanese pay £100m for a stake in UK’s Aberdeen
02.10.08
Japan's largest bank became the latest raider of British financial institutions today as it swept up 10% of Aberdeen Asset Management.
Days after Nomura part-rescued the London operations of Lehman Brothers, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corpration spent £100 million on Aberdeen shares.
According to dealers, Mitsubishi was offering 140p a share for Aberdeen stock, a 10% premium to last night's close of 126½p.
The UK fund management group denied the arrival of Mitsubishi is a rescue of Aberdeen.
"It is not a bailout. It is the reverse," said an Alliance spokesman.
"This is not an issue of new equity. This is about a new business alliance."
Mitsubishi last month injected $11 billion into Morgan Stanley.
Aberdeen said it had entered into an agreement in which Mitsubishi would distribute Aberdeen financial products in Japan, difficult market for overseas firms to crack.
As part of the agreement Mitsubishi is buying an initial 9.9% of Aberdeen's shares from existing investors with an agreement that it can buy up to 19.9%.
