Sumitomo Mitsui Eyes European Banks’ $90 Billion in Asset

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan’s second-biggest bank by market value, plans to buy “several hundred billion yen” of assets being sold by European lenders building capital to weather the region’s debt crisis.

The Tokyo-based bank has received 7 trillion yen ($90 billion) in offers from European banks including infrastructure project loans, Koichi Miyata, Sumitomo Mitsui’s president, said in an interview on Dec. 21. Sellers of European banking assets currently outnumber buyers, he said.