Citigroup clinches Nikko takeover

With a $13.4 billion offer, Citigroup Inc. yesterday closed on the largest foreign takeover of a Japanese company, Nikko Cordial Corp., according to published reports. The U.S. financial services company announced that, including the 4.9% it already owned, it will have 61% of the shares in Japan’s third-largest brokerage group. The deal has been in the works since February, when New York-based Citigroup began negotiations to buy out its Japanese investment-banking venture with Tokyo-based Nikko Cordial Corp. in the wake of an accounting scandal, according to published reports. Nikko had admitted to overstating its earnings in 2004, which led to the resignation of six top Nikko executives.