Resona Holdings Inc. is in the final stages of talks with CSK Corp. over the sale of a major part of the group's equity stake in Cosmo Securities Co., the company said Wednesday.
Resona Bank is the top shareholder in Cosmo Securities, currently holding about 250 million shares, or about 60 percent of the total outstanding shares of the Osaka-based brokerage.
Resona is negotiating to sell more than one-third of the outstanding shares to CSK, a Tokyo-based computer systems consulting firm, the company said.
The sale would help Resona Holdings concentrate on rebuilding its banking business. Under the deal, CSK hopes to launch brokerage activities, using its accumulated knowhow in the information technology business.
A Japanese newspaper reported Wednesday that CSK is mulling the purchase of more than 33 percent of Cosmo Securities' outstanding shares, spending 35 billion yen or more, to put the brokerage under its group's umbrella.
CSK would need some 60 billion yen to purchase all the shares of the mid-ranked brokerage held by Resona Bank.
Cosmo Securities reported a net profit of 1.3 billion yen during the half-year period through September.
Resona Holdings is expected to decide on the share sale at its board meeting Thursday, according to the report.
Resona Holdings, which received 1.96 trillion yen in public funds in June, has been restructuring by reducing the number of its affiliated companies.
The financial group in October sold 12.5 million shares of Asahi Retail Securities Co. it held to separate it from the group.
CSK is also trying to rebuild its group. In December, CSK sold a 22.4 percent stake in Sega Corp., a major computer game company, for about 45 billion yen to pachinko machine maker Sammy Corp.