Japanese bank merger

13 August, 2004


日本第二大银行三菱东京集团和第四大银行日联集团计划合并，组成世界上最大的银行。第三大银行三井住友金融集团设法阻挠。


Many Japanese banks have struggled to rebuild their finances after a stock
market and property crash in the early 1990s. Their solution to crippling
financial problems(困绕这些银行的财务问题) has been to merge with
one another in an attempt to get bigger and hopefully stronger.

This latest deal is the largest one yet. It is in effect a rescue of the UFJ
banking group by a smaller but less indebted rival, Mitsubishi Financial
Holdings. 


The two organisations announced their intention to merge last year. But
negotiations were held up by legal challenges from another bank, the Sumitomo
Mitsui group(三井住友金融集团), which also wants to join forces with
UFJ. 


On Wednesday, a court in Tokyo lifted an injunction(撤消一个禁令)
won by Sumitomo that prevented merger talks from taking place. Agreement on
basic terms was reached within hours of the court's ruling. But Sumitomo may
still try and block the merger by mounting a hostile takeover bid(强行收购)
for UFJ, which means making the bank's shareholders an offer sufficiently
attractive to persuade them to overrule(驳回) the wishes of the
management.