OSAKA -- A new bank to be created through a merger between Bank of Kinki and Bank of Osaka, both affiliates of Daiwa Bank, will be headed by Yasuhiro Takatani, currently president of Bank of Kinki, the two announced Thursday.
The new bank, Kinki Osaka Bank, which will begin operation on April 1, 2000, will become the top regional bank in the Kansai region in terms of deposits, to total 3.6 trillion yen.
Its capital adequacy ratio will be 5.5 percent, but Takatani said that he will try to further raise the ratio. The merged bank aims to earn a net operating profit of 30 billion yen with deposits 3.7 trillion yen in the business year ending March 2003.
To improve efficiency, it will reduce its retail operations by merging about 30 outlets and cutting the number of employees from 3,900 to 3,300.
The two banks have been negotiating details of their merger since announcing the plan in May. They signed a memorandum on the merger Thursday, under which Bank of Osaka will be the surviving company, while the top executives of the new bank will come from Bank of Kinki.
Daiwa Bank will buy 15 billion yen worth of new Bank of Kinki shares and 20 billion yen of new Bank of Osaka shares, thereby securing a 31 percent stake in Kinki Osaka Bank.