The nationalized Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan will not be able to find a buyer by the end of the month, Financial Reconstruction Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa indicated Friday.
"It has been taking some time (for relevant parties) to adjust their views on some issues," Yanagisawa told a regular news conference. "It does not mean the negotiations have hit a deadlock, but it will take more time."
He also said not all candidate buyers have entered the final phase of negotiations.
LTCB contracted in February with a Japanese unit of Goldman Sachs, an American investment bank, as a financial adviser to find a purchaser. Yanagisawa at the time hoped that the process would be completed by April 30.
Last October, the failed LTCB became the first bank to be nationalized in postwar Japan.