Calculated risk

Chuck Prince has been accused of being too conservative when it comes to making acquisitions. But no one could say Citigroup’s $11bn bid for Nikko Cordial isn’t bold. It means wading into a market where Citi has had big problems in the past with regulators. The group was stripped of its private banking licence there a few years ago - one of the scandals that led to its infamous acquisition ban. What’s more, Nikko itself has big regulatory problems. The Tokyo stock exchange is threatening to de-l...