Japan's Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group (MTFG) today sealed a deal to take over troubled bank UFJ Holdings to form the world's biggest bank.
The deal will see MTFG, the nation's second-biggest bank, form a holding company - Mitsubishi UFJ Holdings - to run the two groups' banking, trust and securities operations from October 1st, 2005.
They announced the date in a joint statement.
The agreement freezes out the country's third-biggest bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, which made a rival bid for fourth-ranked UFJ and submitted a formal proposal last week offering more than 500 billion yen ($4.52 billion) in capital.
MTFG said late last night it would inject up to 700 billion yen into UFJ, which has been in the red for three years.
An MTFG-UFJ combination would create a bank with assets of about $1.7 billion, eclipsing current global leader Citigroup, which has assets of $1.3 trillion.
