Mizuho bares Asian expansion plans
Mizuho Financial Group may buy an investment bank in Asia to help improve slow growth in winning equity and debt offerings in the region.
Bloomberg reported that according to its CEO Yasuhiro Sato, it may also form an alliance with an investment bank, and purchase asset managers and hedge funds in Singapore, India and Indonesia,.
There are also plans to increase the branches in Asia outside of Japan to 50 from 33 within five years for its corporate banking unit.
Mizuho, ranked No. 22 in Asian equity underwriting this year, aims to tap corporate banking clients to boost fee income from advisory and underwriting as the domestic economy slows and loan demand slumps. The bank is yet to break into the top 10 for equity deals in the region since listing in the U.S. in 2006 in a bid to win more investment banking businesses.
“Our power to originate deals currently is still far from enough,” Sato, 59, said in an interview on Dec. 6. “We have to strengthen our capability in capital markets. It will be a big challenge to do it alone.”
Sato added he has no plan to sell Mizuho’s stake in Bank of America Corp. or add to its stake of BlackRock Inc.
