Japanese lender Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) is looking to acquire asset management firms at home and abroad as well as commercial banks in emerging Asia to boost growth amid falling loan income and stricter bank regulation, its CEO said. Hobbled by tepid demand for cash from businesses amid weak economic growth for years, and more recently by negative interest rates, Japan's major banks have been trying to boost their fee incomes by buying asset managers and funds-related service providers. They have also acquired stakes in lenders in places like Southeast Asia.
"As we look for ways to increase assets under management at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management (SMAM), we need to consider inorganic means," Takeshi Kunibe, CEO of Japan's third-largest lender by assets, said in an interview. While SMFG is only now looking at acquisitions in asset management, Japan's biggest lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group acquired a stake in Aberdeen Asset Management PLC
as far back as in 2008 and now owns about 17 percent in the British fund manager. And No 2 Mizuho Financial Group agreed in 2015 to buy a 16 percent stake in Matthews International Capital Management LLC, a US-based, Asia-focused investment house. SMAM, the funds unit of SMFG, manages about 11.9 trillion yen ($107.2 billion) in assets. Kunibe did not give a target figure for AUM or types of asset management companies for potential acquisitions.
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