Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) is in discussions to acquire a stake in midsize Japanese lender Aozora Bank, The Wall Street Journal reports. U.S. investment firm Cerberus Capital Management had a stake of about 55 percent in Aozora as of March 31.

Tokyo-based Aozora, which has a market value of $4 billion, has 20 branches across Japan and two overseas representative branches with total assets of $63 billion. ANZ aims to get 25 percent to 30 percent of its profit from its Asian-Pacific, European and American business by 2017, which currently accounts for 14 percent.

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