Daiwa to buy Close Brothers division
DAIWA Securities said yesterday it will acquire Close Brothers Corporate Finance, joining the push by Japanese investment banks to sign cross-border deals.
Daiwa Securities SMBC, an investment banking venture between Daiwa Securities Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, will pay £75m for the division of Close Brothers Group.
Daiwa said it expects the transaction to complete by the end of June. The Corporate Finance unit posted an adjusted operating loss of £2.9m in the six months to 31 January. In the year to the previous July it made profits of £4.7m.
“I would expect over the year as a whole that we would do better than that, but that’s not a forecast,” said Stephen Aulsebrook, who will remain the unit’s chief executive.
Close Brothers will issue a quarterly trading update this Thursday.