For many in the industry, investment banking has gone back to the 1980s. It was an era where the top firms made money through their advice, rather than their trading operations or balance sheets.
And it was an era where Japan-related M&A was one of the most profitable businesses to be in.
More than 20 years of stagnation in the world’s second-biggest economy have followed. But now Japan is on a buying spree once again. And it’s fertile territory for investment banks looking to replicate the fee-based models of their past.
Over $40 billion-worth of outbound deals was announced from Japan in just the first quarter of 2015, a figure more than double any of the previous five years for the same period, according to Dealogic.
To put that in perspective, the total deal value for Japanese outbound M&A for 2014 was just over $50 billion.
Japan outbound M&A revenue ranking, 2014 |
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Rank |
Bank |
Net revenue ($mln) |
% share |
1 |
Morgan Stanley |
105 |
17.2 |
2 |
Goldman Sachs |
57 |
9.2 |