Less than a decade ago Japanese banks were the sick men of global finance. Today they are bouncing back. Having rebuilt their ba

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问题     Less than a decade ago Japanese banks were the sick men of global finance. Today they are bouncing back. Having rebuilt their balance sheets, Japan’s financial institutions are rich in cash while their foreign peers are helpless and in debt. And unusually for sumo-sized, bureaucratic Japanese firms, they are moving fast.
    On September 22nd Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group(MUFG), Japan’s biggest bank, agreed to pay about $8.4 billion for up to 20% of Morgan Stanley. The Japanese will have at least one seat on the board. In August MUFG also spent about $3.5 billion on the 35% of Union-BanCal, a bank based in San Francisco, that it did not already own.
    Meanwhile Nomura, Japan’s biggest broker, bought the Asian, European and Middle Eastern divisions of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed Wall Street bank—though not its trading assets or liabilities. The Asia-Pacific business, which employs 3,000 people in ten territories, cost Nomura $225m. The European and Middle East equities and investment-banking operations have 2,500 staff in around ten countries. Kenichi Watanabe, Nomura’s new and atypically young(ie, 55-year-old)boss, called the deals "a once-in-a-generation opportunity".
    Other institutions are also looking abroad. Earlier this year Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group(SMFG)and Mizuho, the other two big banks, invested about $1 billion in Barclays and Merrill Lynch, respectively. Before Warren Buffett’s show of support, SMFG had considered putting fresh cash into Goldman Sachs, an old friend: since the 1980s the two groups have often helped each other through hard times.
    Both MUFG and Nomura are giants at home but pygmies abroad, for lack of human capital rather than the more tangible stuff. Both hope the purchases will provide badly needed expertise in advising on international mergers and acquisitions, and equity underwriting.
    But Nomura faces huge difficulties in managing two vastly different corporate cultures: Japanese salaryman and American psycho. Japanese companies prize loyalty and seniority, and pay is more or less egalitarian. By contrast, Americans are unafraid to change jobs, value youth at least as much as experience, and pay big salaries supposedly based on merit. Keeping staff— the most important asset in banking after money—will be hard. Welding together the IT systems will be, too.
    There are also strategic concerns. In the booming 1980s Japanese banks gobbled up American ones at inflated prices, and then sold at a loss. Now their acquisitions may look cheaper, but they are buying into an industry in trouble. Profits could be thin for years, tighter regulation looms, leverage is a dirty word and fears of recession are growing around the world.
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

选项 A、Nomura bought the Asian, European and African divisions of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed Wall Street bank.
B、Before Warren Buffett’s show of support, SMFG put fresh cash into Goldman Sachs, an old friend.
C、As financial pygmies abroad, MUFG and Nomura do not lack the tangible stuff but human capital.
D、Japanese banks’ purchasing American ones this time might result in similar failure as what’s in 1980s.

答案C

解析 推理判断题。本题要综合原文内容来解题:[A]与原文第三段第一句不符:野村购买的是“亚、欧、中东”的分公司,而非“亚、欧、非”的分公司;[B]是对第四段末句的误解,原文说是在考虑,该举并没有完成;[C]是对原文第五段第一句的解释,与原文意思相符,因此为正确答案;[D]是对原文末段第三、四句的误解,原文说“这次购买看起来是捡了便宜”,而并非“以膨胀的价格”,同时这次购买“近年内将收益微薄”也并非“以亏损出卖”。所以这两者是不一样的,故排除。
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