Japan's newly privatised postal bank plans to raise its investment overseas to almost 10 billion dollars this year, aiming to boost earnings ahead of an initial public offering, a report said Tuesday.

Japan Post Bank, created by the break-up of the mail operator last year, plans to ask foreign companies to manage some of the roughly 180 trillion yen (1.7 trillion dollars) in assets it oversees, the Nikkei business newspaper reported.

US asset management firm BlackRock Inc. is believed to be among the candidates, it reported, without saying where it got the information.

Japan Post Bank is expected to invest at least 1.0 trillion yen (9.6 billion dollars) in the current fiscal year to March, the daily reported.

The bank is expected to invest in US and European corporate bonds, it said.

Until now the post office's assets have been largely invested in government bonds, helping to finance popular but often wasteful public works projects.

The commercial bank, which has the world's largest savings, was created in October as the government broke up Japan Post at the start of a privatisation process set to reshape the country's finance industry.

The government hopes that reform will boost competition in the financial services sector and help to reduce the huge national debt.