SUMITOMO Mitsui Financial Group Inc, Japan's second-biggest bank by market value, said yesterday that it will not participate in the Goldman Sachs Group Inc's US$5-billion public offering.

The Tokyo-based lender will not invest in Goldman at this time, spokesman Toshihide Sakamoto said yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. Sumitomo Mitsui was considering investing in the offering by Goldman or purchasing preferred shares, insiders said.

The Japanese bank would have followed Nomura Holdings Inc and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc in investing in Wall Street firms that have either gone bankrupt or are seeking to boost capital to stay afloat. Goldman said on Wednesday that it raised US$5 billion in a stock offering, twice the amount it originally sought, after gaining an endorsement and a US$5-billion cash infusion from billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Sumitomo Mitsui invested 500 million pounds (US$926.7 million) in Barclays Plc in July, and it was also in talks with bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc to buy some assets in Asia, according to some insiders.

Nomura agreed this week to buy units of Lehman in Asia and Europe, while Mitsubishi UFJ plans to acquire as much as 20 percent of Morgan Stanley.

New York-based Goldman sold 40.65 million shares of common stock at US$123 apiece, the firm said. That's a 1.6-percent discount on Tuesday's closing price of US$125.05.

The company, which underwrote its own offering, has an option to sell an additional 6.1 million shares.