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

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

admin2015-03-25  60
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.
We can infer from Paragraph 4 that
选项 A、Mizuho and SMFG invested about $1 billion in Barclays.
B、SMFG invested about $1 billion in Merrill Lynch.
C、SMFG put fresh cash into Goldman Sachs to help it.
D、Warren Buffett’s support helped Goldman Sachs.
答案D
解析 推理判断题。由题干提示定位至第四段。根据第四段第二句Sumitomo Mitsui FinancialGroup(SMFG)and Mizuho，the other two big banks，invested about $1 billion in Balclays and MerrillLynch，respectively．可知，SMFG在Barclays投资大约10亿美金；Mizuho对Merrill Lynch投资大约10亿美金。故[D]是正确答案。同时排除[A]、[B]；根据本段末句可知“在沃伦.巴菲特表示要支援高盛公司之前，三井住友金融集团本打算对高盛公司进行现金援助”，即三井住友其实没有给高盛现金援助，是沃伦·巴菲特支援了高盛，所以排除[C]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hH74777K
0

考研英语一

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)