Daiwa To Buy Sumitomo's Stake in Joint Venture

Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Japan's second-largest brokerage, said it will buy a 40% stake in Daiwa SMBC, an investment banking joint venture held by its partner Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) for 200 billion JPY ($2.2 billion USD), making the venture 100% owned by the end of December. Since SMFG merged with Nikko Cordial Securities, Daiwa's biggest competitor from Citigroup in May, Daiwa Securites and SMFG couldn't help going separate ways.