Mizuho Financial Group Acquires Stake in Rakuten Card

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan's Mizuho (NYSE:MFG) Financial Group will take a 15% stake in Rakuten Group subsidiary Rakuten Card for 165 billion yen ($1.06 billion), further deepening the two companies' strategic alliance, they announced on Wednesday.

The share transfer is planned for December 1.

The two groups had agreed late last year for Mizuho to raise its stake in Rakuten Securities to nearly half as Rakuten Group faced financial struggles, particularly due to its unprofitable mobile network unit.

Rakuten stated that the sale of the Rakuten Card stake would result in a special profit of 159.35 billion yen at the unconsolidated level for the financial year ending in December.

> ($1 = 155.1000 yen)