Mizuho Corporate Bank said Tuesday it will invest up to 400 million Hong Kong dollars (6 billion yen) in China CITIC Bank as part of its expansion into the Chinese market.
Mizuho Corporate, a banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group Inc., said it will buy a portion of the Chinese bank's new shares to be issued in line with its initial public offerings on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets scheduled for the second quarter of this year.
The acquisition price and the number of shares to be acquired have yet to be determined, Mizuho Corporate said.
China CITIC, the country's seventh-largest commercial bank by assets and under the control of Chinese financial conglomerate CITIC Holdings, has a nationwide network of 446 branches.
The move is expected to help Mizuho Corporate expand its services for Japanese companies entering the Chinese market, industry sources said.
Mizuho Corporate received authorization last year to set up companies in China.
With the deal, Mizuho Corporate will become the second Japanese bank to invest in a Chinese bank.
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ obtained a 0.2 percent stake last June in the Bank of China, one of the four big state-owned banks, for 20 billion yen.