TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said on Friday it would spend about 99.7 billion yen ($664 million) to turn WealthNavi Inc, a provider of automated asset management, into a wholly owned subsidiary.
MUFG will launch a tender offer on Monday for 1,950 yen apiece, or an 84% premium over WealthNavi’s closing share price on Thursday. The stock surged 28% on Friday by the daily limit to 1,358 yen after the Nikkei business daily reported the deal ahead of the announcement.
WealthNavi, in which MUFG already has a more than 15% stake, had over 1 trillion yen in assets under management as of January, making it the biggest robo-adviser in Japan.
While many Japanese have opted to save their assets, the government has been pushing for them to invest in financial markets, expanding a tax-free programme known as NISA partly to reduce reliance on the public pension system.
MUFG took the partial stake in WealthNavi in February as financial firms increasingly team up with fintech companies to expand their online services.
($1 = 150.1000 yen)
(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)
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