SBI to Fully Repay Public Funds Next Month

   Tokyo, June 25 (Jiji Press)--SBI Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that the Japanese financial group will complete on July 31 repayment of public funds poured into its banking unit, a move that marks the end of the aftermath of a financial crisis triggered by the bursting in the early 1990s of asset-inflated bubbles in Japan.
   Although a specific scheme to repay the 230-billion-yen funds SBI Shinsei Bank has not already paid back to the government is yet to be decided, the parent firm is expected to purchase the bank's preferred shares held by government-affiliated Deposit Insurance Corp. of Japan and its Resolution and Collection Corp. arm, people familiar with the matter said.
   To raise funds for the share purchase, SBI Holdings is considering allotting new shares worth some 110 billion yen to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and issuing 170 billion yen in corporate bonds, they added.
   The bank, which took public money to write off soured loans like other banks in the country, was initially set to end the debt repayment within several years from now. But the holding firm has decided to bring forward the repayment schedule.
   SBI Holdings is also expected to apply next month for SBI Shinsei Bank's relisting on the Tokyo Stock Exchange so the bank by the end of the year can go public for a third time since it was Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, which went bust in 1998.

(2025/06/25-14:23)

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