Shinsei Bank Drops Poison Pill Defense Against SBI Takeover

(Bloomberg) -- Shinsei Bank Ltd. has dropped its poison pill defense against SBI Holdings Inc.’s planned takeover of the mid-sized Japanese lender. 

Tokyo-based Shinsei has canceled a planned shareholder vote on the defense measures that was scheduled for Thursday and changed its stance on SBI’s offer to neutral, it said in a statement on Wednesday.  

A takeover fight erupted for Shinsei in September when SBI launched a share tender offer to raise its holdings in the bank to about 48%. That’s a level that would give it effective control without additional regulatory hurdles.

SBI said it doesn’t plan to change its offer price of 2,000 yen a share for Shinsei, a statement showed. Both companies discussed the issues on Wednesday, the Nikkei newspaper reported earlier. 

Shinsei said it plans to hold an extraordinary shareholder meeting in early February to vote on SBI’s proposed director candidates. If shareholders approve them, the current Shinsei management will step down, the bank said. 

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