Taiwan's Chinatrust Commercial Bank is in talks to take over a regional Japanese bank in what would be the first such foreign acquisition, a report said Sunday. The major Taiwanese bank has already told the shareholders of Tokyo Star Bank that it wants to buy a nearly 100-percent stake for about 50 billion yen ($580 million), the business daily Nikkei reported.
Although foreign funds have taken over Japanese banks before, no overseas bank has ever done so, it said.
Tokyo Star's shareholders - including US investment fund Lone Star Funds, Japan's Shinsei Bank and France's Credit Agricole - are due to examine the terms of the proposed take-over early next year, the Nikkei said.
Chinatrust will make a final decision on the take-over price after examining the Tokyo bank's assets.