Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc will announce as soon as next week that it will purchase Citigroup Inc's Japanese consumer banking business, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. SMFG, Japan's second biggest bank by market value, will buy the business for about 40 billion yen ($334 million), Bloomberg said. (bloom.bg/1yKLLBc)Other Japanese companies are interested in acquiring Citigroup's card unit, but the bank has no plans to negotiate with them, Bloomberg said.Citigroup did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ($1 = 119.79 yen)
Shares of SMFG fell by 1.47% or $-0.11/share to $7.38. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $7.28 and as high as $10.59. On average, 1786930 shares of SMFG exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1603133.
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