January 27, 2005
Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.
Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd.
Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd.
Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. (MHCB: President and CEO, Hiroshi Saito), Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. (MHSC: President, Yoshio Osawa), Nikko Cordial Corporation (President and CEO, Junichi Arimura) and Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. (Nikko Cordial Securities: President and CEO, Junichi Arimura) hereby announce that they have formally reached an agreement as outlined below for cooperating to complement each other's businesses.
After the signing of the business cooperation agreement, MHCB plans to acquire 94 million shares of Nikko Cordial Corporation's treasury stock on January 31, 2005.