SBI Holdings Inc. President and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao speaks at a press conference in Tokyo on Dec. 22, 2021. (Kyodo)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- SBI Holdings Inc. President and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said Wednesday the online financial group is open to delisting Shinsei Bank to repay public funds injected into it in the late 1990s during Japan's financial crisis.

       "It is an important option," Kitao said in his first press conference since SBI's successful takeover bid for the bank, referring to the possibility of making the bank private to repay some 350 billion yen ($3 billion) through asset sales.

       Kitao said the company will discuss with the Financial Services Agency whether such an option could be pursued.

       The government injected 370 billion yen in public funds into the bank after Shinsei's predecessor, the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, collapsed in 1998 in the wake of the bursting of Japan's economic bubble. About 350 billion yen has yet to be repaid.

       If the government wishes to recoup the funds by way of a sale of its shareholdings in Shinsei, the price per share would need to be 7,450 yen, far above the current price of some 1,900 yen.

       "It is not easy for the (Shinsei) share price to see a sharp increase," Kitao said, adding that it is unlikely that institutional investors will be interested in trading the bank's shares due to a lack of liquidity on the market in part caused by the government's more than 20 percent holding.

       SBI boosted its stake in Shinsei to around 47.8 percent from around 20 percent through the tender offer that ended earlier this month.

       Shinsei has said it will accept three candidates picked by SBI to serve as board members, including Hirofumi Gomi, a former head of the FSA, and seek approval at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting scheduled for February.

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