Maverick financier Yoshitaka Kitao has scored a major victory in his bid to take effective control of a mid-sized lender and shake up the ranks of Japanese finance.
Shinsei Bank Ltd. canceled a shareholder vote on a poison pill defense against a takeover bid from Kitao’s SBI Holdings Inc. that was scheduled for Thursday, and shifted its stance on the offer to neutral. For its part, SBI reiterated that the online brokerage won’t change the price floated to raise its stake to 48%, rebuffing Shinsei’s attempt to extract more favorable terms for existing investors.
The reversal comes just a day after people familiar with the matter said the government, Shinsei’s largest shareholder, planned to withhold support for the poison pill, tipping the scales in the tussle between the two firms. Kitao has publicly criticized Shinsei managers and pledged to remove them once his company succeeds with its tender offer.