Nomura seeks M&A bankers as Japan deals surge during virus

Bloomberg

Nomura Holdings Inc is hiring bankers for its mergers and acquisitions business in Japan as a sharp rebound in domestic deal-making 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% from a normal year, with clients seeking advice on “every kind of transaction” during the pandemic, he said.
Japan has driven a global revival in M&A activity in recent months, as the economy shows early signs of a recovery and companies look to reshape themselves for life after the coronavirus. Nomura has worked on mammoth deals including the $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 recently 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 reorganisation and cross-border transactions.”
Mergers involving Japanese companies have jumped 59% this year to $247 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.