Sony Financial Says to Make Sony Bank Wholly Owned

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp's (6758.T) financial arm, Sony Financial Holdings Inc (8729.T), said on Friday that it would make Sony Bank a wholly owned company.

It plans to buy 60,000 shares from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) to raise its stake to 100 percent from 88 percent, it said in a statement.

A Sony Financial spokesman said that while the price had yet to be decided, it was likely to be a bit higher than the 100,000 yen per share and total of 6 billion yen that Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group had paid.

A decision on the price is expected in March and the deal will be finalized at the end of that month, he added.

The listing of Sony Financial Holdings last October was the latest step by the Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate to focus resources on core products, such as digital cameras, video game consoles and flat screen TVs, and sell non-strategic assets.

Sony Financial shares ended the day up 1 percent at 415,000 yen.

(Reporting by Edwina Gibbs and Elaine Lies)