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Nomura to Buy Citi's NikkoCiti Trust

Joseph Woelfel

Nomura Holdings(NMR Quote) will pay 19 billion yen ($197 million) to buy Citigroup's(C Quote) Japanese trust banking subsidiary NikkoCiti Trust and Banking Corp..

The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter, NikkoCiti said in a statement Wednesday.

"This transaction is in line with Citi's stated global priority to allocate capital and focus its resources on the best growth opportunities," said NikkoCiti's CEO Douglas Peterson, in a statement. "Citi will maintain a strong presence in securities services and transaction services in Japan. We see significant opportunity for these businesses in Japan, which play to Citi's key strengths."

The sale by Citigroup is a continuation of its efforts to raise capital. In May, the bank agreed to sell Japanese brokerage Nikko Cordial and key investment banking assets to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial.

The deal with Nomura is the second time Citigroup reached an agreement to sell NikkoCiti Trust. In December, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MTU Quote) agreed to buy the unit for $262 million but canceled the plan in May.

For Nomura, Japan's largest brokerage, the acquisition of NikkoCiti Trust would boost its trust bank business, which is a solid fee generator. Nomura posted a record loss of 708.2 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March 31.