Buyout firm buys into ailing lender
TPG Inc, the buyout group run by David Bonderman and James Coulter, will spend $282 million for a stake in NIS Group Co, a money-losing Japanese lender to consumers and small businesses.
The buyout fund, formerly known as Texas Pacific Group, will pay 20 billion yen ($179 million) for as many as 100 million new shares in NIS, according to a statement.
TPG took advantage of a plunge in NIS' market value this year after a crackdown on Japan's consumer lending industry caused interest refunds to surge.
NIS, which slid 69 percent in the 11 months to November 30, partly reversed an early decline of 16 percent in Tokyo trading after it said on Friday that the deal had been scrapped.
"Money lenders in Japan, except for the top ones, are suffering serious difficulties in funding," said Koei Takahashi, a Tokyo-based credit strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc.
NIS traded 7 percent lower at 331 yen as of 12:32 pm in Tokyo. In a statement sent late on Friday, it said the stock sale to TPG had been "canceled" because it failed to complete documentation.
Bloomberg News
(China Daily 12/11/2007 page16)
