Nomura Holdings Inc is hiring bankers for its mergers and acquisitions (M&A) business in Japan as a sharp rebound in domestic dealmaking vaults the nation’s biggest securities firm to the top ranks of global advisers.
“We’re recruiting people more eagerly than usual,” global M&A head Shunichi Tsunoda said in an interview.
Consultations on local deals are up about 30 to 40 percent from a normal year, with clients seeking advice on “every kind of transaction” during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Japan has driven a global revival in M&A activity in the past few months, as the economy shows early signs of a recovery and companies look to reshape themselves for life after the pandemic.
Nomura has worked on mammoth deals including the US$40 billion NTT Docomo Inc buyout, putting it on course to end the year among the world’s top 10 advisers for the first time, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
While Tsunoda said there is no numerical target for hiring, Nomura has published advertisements seeking M&A bankers in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
A jump in demand for advice since August probably reflects clients’ decisions to act on plans they developed after the pandemic took hold, Tsunoda said.
Companies are seeking input on everything from divestitures to the purchase of competitors to mergers designed to enter different industries, he said.
“We’re at the start of an era” similar to the aftermath of the global financial crisis, Tsunoda said. “Be it a post or with-coronavirus era, things will change — there should be more industrial reorganization and cross-border transactions.”
Mergers involving Japanese companies have jumped 59 percent this year to US$247 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Nomura is the top adviser on Japanese transactions, retaining its lead over Morgan Stanley’s venture with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, the data show.
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