A Game-Changing Week For SMFG

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It was a busy few days for Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), Japan's second-largest bank by market value, which spent between JPY20 and JPY30bn (US$206-310mn) picking up a 51% stake in the consumer loan unit of Japanese financial services group ORIX, just days before making an industry-transforming acquisition of Citigroup's securities business. SMFG, well-capitalised after raising US$5.8bn in capital in December 2008, is keen to bolster its non-banking operations and, as a result, has been eager to jump on the opportunities for strategic acquisitions that the current environment affords. The acquisition of ORIX, which at the end of March had