Mizuho Financial Group Inc. agreed to buy a 2 percent stake in BlackRock Inc. for $500 million, according to two people briefed on the transaction.
Mizuho’s stake in the world’s largest asset manager will include 2.45 million shares sold directly by Bank of America Corp., and additional shares purchased during a secondary offering earlier this week, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information is private. After the transaction, Mizuho will help distribute BlackRock’s funds to Japanese investors, one of the people said.
BlackRock’s biggest shareholders, Bank of America and PNC Financial Services Group Inc., on Nov. 9 sold $8.3 billion of stock in the asset manager in a secondary offering, as they sought to reduce investments outside their main business.
BlackRock’s secondary offering was priced at $163. BlackRock rose 1.4 percent to $170.80 at 1:31 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Bobbie Collins, a spokeswoman for New York-based BlackRock, declined to comment, as did Jerry Dubrowski, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America. The news was reported earlier today by Nikkei English News.
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