(Feb 27): Some of Nintendo Co’s biggest shareholders including the Bank of Kyoto and DeNA Co will sell stakes in the games maker worth about JPY285.7 billion (US$1.9 billion or $2.3 billion), part of a growing push in Japan to unwind cross-shareholdings.
The sellers, which include the manager of MUFG Bank’s retiree allowance trust account and Resona Bank, will offload a total 32.7 million Nintendo shares in a secondary offering, with an overallotment of as many as 4.9 million additional shares, according to a filing. Nintendo separately announced a buy-back of as much as JPY100 billion.
Shares of the Kyoto-based company closed up 3% in Tokyo on Friday after Reuters first reported news of a share sale. Bloomberg News calculated the value of the offering based on Nintendo’s closing price of JPY8,737 on Thursday.
The Kyoto Financial Group Inc, of which the Bank of Kyoto is a part, has long argued about the benefits of holding shares in its corporate clients as a means to provide a stable foundation for innovation. But it and other financial institutions are under mounting pressure from regulators and investors to pare such cross-shareholdings, which are seen to hinder good corporate governance.
“If this is paired with a buy-back, this has little impact on stock liquidity,” said Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda. “The move is in line with instructions from regulators and the Tokyo Stock Exchange to pare strategic shareholdings — neither more nor less.”
The Bank of Kyoto held a roughly 4.19% stake in Nintendo as of the end of September, according to a company filing. Share offerings in Japan totalled approximately JPY3.2 trillion in 2025, approaching the record high of JPY3.66 trillion in 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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