Japan's fourth biggest banking group UFJ Holdings Inc said Monday it had formally declined a merger offer from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (SMFG).
Takamune Okihara, president of UFJ Bank, the core unit of the UFJ group, telephoned Sumitomo Mitsui President Yoshifumi Nishikawa and said UFJ was declining the offer, a UFJ Holdings spokesman said.
"(Okihara) called to say that officially to the other side," a UFJ spokesman told AFP. Sumitomo Mitsui representatives were not available for immediate comment.
UFJ officials had previously told reporters that the bank's desire to tie-up with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (MTFG) to create the world's largest bank had not changed following the emergence of a rival bid by SMFG on Friday.
Talks between UFJ Holdings and MTFG, Japan's second-largest and most profitable bank, hit a snag last week with a Tokyo court issuing an injunction barring UFJ from conducting talks involving the sale of its trust banking unit.
The order to halt the merger negotiations followed a petition filed by Sumitomo Trust and Banking on July 16 in defence of its own earlier accord with UFJ on their trust bank business.
In collaboration with Sumitomo Trust and Banking - the Sumitomo group's trust banking unit - SMFG suddenly came up with an offer on Friday to merge with UFJ, which has been struggling under a mountain of non-performing loans.
UFJ Holdings President Ryosuke Tamakoshi told the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in an interview published Sunday that "We have no intention at all" of negotiating with SMFG.