TOKYO: Mizuho Financial Group Inc plans to merge its three asset management operations, which between then control publicly offered trusts worth more than 6 trillion yen ($50 billion), people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The merger will help Japan's second largest banking group better compete with rivals including industry leader Nomura Asset Management, which controls about 23 trillion yen in publicly offered trusts.
Under the plan, to be announced this month, Mizuho will merge Shinko Asset Management Co and Mizuho Asset Management Co, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly.
The asset-management division of Mizuho Trust & Banking Co will also be hived off and combined into the merged entity, the sources added.
A Mizuho spokeswoman declined to comment.
Mizuho was created during Japan's financial crisis by the 2000 merger of Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan.
Despite a "One Mizuho" slogan, the megabank still retains the vestiges of its legacy lenders: it merged its commercial banking units just two years ago.
DIAM Co, an asset-management venture Mizuho has with Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co, will not join the merger, but its parent companies are in talks over its integration with the combined asset-management company in future, the sources said.
A Dai-ichi Life spokesman declined to comment. Mizuho is also likely to unveil a plan to expand its overseas business through acquisitions and stake purchases of overseas asset-management companies, the sources added.
Shinko Asset Management Co and Mizuho Asset Management Co have 6 trillion yen ($50 billion) in publicly offered investment trusts under management, according to data from the Investment Trust Association Japan.
Figures for the Mizuho Trust division are not broken out separately.
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