M&A and Other Financial Advisory Services

In today' s dramatically changing business environment, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are becoming an essential tool for maintaining sustained corporate growth. Due to a series of amendments to the Commercial Code and hostile takeover attempts, moreover, raising corporate value is now regarded as an important management issue. For this reason, M&A will become more and more popular as a key tool for addressing this issue. Depending on our clients' business and financial strategies, our Advisory Group provides advice related to corporate mergers, share swaps, corporate partitioning, acquisitions, sell-offs, business tie-ups, and capital strategies. It also offers advice on corporate reconstruction and sale of nonperforming loans.Mizuho Financial Group, including Mizuho Securities, has established a major presence in the M&A advisory field, consistently placing at the top of industry M&A advisory rankings.

[ M&A Advisory Ranking ]

With unrivalled M&A-related skills and knowledge, Advisory Group draws on the industry knowledge and broad customer base of Mizuho Financial Group to devise proposals and provide valuable information. For this reason, it is retained by numerous clients under various arrangements. It also has a strong track record in advisory services, through which it is further advancing and developing its project completion capabilities. We will continue to deliver optimal solutions based on a keen grasp of our clients' strategic needs.

In March 2004, we signed a business alliance agreement with Resona Bank, Ltd., covering M&A. In May 2004, we entered a cooperative agreement with UBS Securities Japan Ltd. for cross-border M&A. And in February 2006, we concluded a business agreement with Evercore Partners to offer cross-border M&A advisory services in Japan and North America. In these ways, we seek to create new business opportunities for our clients and further expand our own M&A advisory operations.