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Sumitomo looks at sale
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December 5, 1997: 7:09 a.m. ET
Japan's Sumitomo Bank mulls the sale of its California bank division
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Japan's Sumitomo Bank, Ltd. is considering the sale of its California operations, among other strategies, in an attempt to focus on its domestic situation.
The bank said Friday that it is looking to sell Sumitomo Bank of California (SUMI), a retail oriented bank based in San Francisco. It is the sixth largest bank in that state and Sumitomo holds an 85 percent interest in it.
The company said it would focus on wholesale commercial banking and capital markets and retreat from the retail banking which Sumitomo Bank of California, with assets of $5.2 billion, provides.
Sumitomo is also mulling the sale of its network of 15 offices which make up its United States Commercial Banking Department. The unit lends to the middle-market financial sector and has assets of $1.7 billion.
Sumitomo said that it was a seller's market for banks.
"Given the current consolidation and favorable business climate in the U.S. banking industry, SBL believes this is an opportune time to explore the potential sale of such operations," the company said in a statement.
The Osaka, Japan-based Sumitomo is the second-largest bank in Japan and has assets of approximately $426 billion, with $27 billion of those assets in the United States.
Like many other Japanese banks, Sumitomo was saddled with many bad debts after a run-up in property prices collapsed in the late 1980's and its retreat from its U.S. operations could be an attempt to shore up things back home. 
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