Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and UnionBanCal Corp. agreed on a tender offer at a raised price of $73.50 a share in a deal worth $3.5 billion, the Japanese bank said Aug. 18. Union Bank has 10 branches in the Tri-Counties. 

Japan’s biggest bank has been trying to take over the 35 percent of California bank UnionBanCal it doesn’t already own to make it a wholly owned subsidiary.

But UnionBanCal rejected a lower buyout offer, saying the $3 billion price, or $63 per share in cash, was too low. Mitsubishi UFJ, also known as MUFG, already owned a 65.4 percent stake in San Francisco-based UnionBanCal, and had wanted to buy the remaining interest through a tender offer beginning Aug. 18.

The Japanese bank said the date for the beginning of the tender was being postponed but won’t be later than Aug. 29. MUFG and its subsidiaries have owned the majority of UnionBanCal since 1996.