Japan Mizuho Financial Group Acquires Investment Bank Greenhill & Co for $550 Million, Founded in 1996 by Ex-President of Morgan Stanley & Ex-Chairman of Smith Barney Robert Greenhill
24th May 2023 | Hong Kong
Japan Mizuho Financial Group has announced the acquisition of investment bank Greenhill & Co. for $550 million (23/5/23). With the acquisition, Mizuho will accelerate investment banking expansion, leveraging on Greenhill 27-year track record of advising major clients on mergers and acquisitions, reorganisations, and capital raising operations. Greenhill will continue to operate, and will function as Mizuho’s Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and restructuring consulting company. Scott L. Bok (Chairman & CEO of Greenhill) will become Chairman of the Mergers & Acquisitions and Restructuring Advising business, with Kevin Costantino and David Wyles (Greenhill Co-Presidents) appointed as Co-Heads. Greenhill will be a business unit under Mizuho’s banking division, led by Michal Katz (Head of Banking). Greenhill was founded in 1996 by Robert F. Greenhill, the former President of Morgan Stanley and former Chairman and CEO of Smith Barney. In 2004, Greenhill was the first of several independent advisory firms to complete an initial public offering and list on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker GHL). Mizuho Financial Group is the 15th largest bank in the world by total assets ($2 trillion)
“ Japan Mizuho Financial Group Acquires Investment Bank Greenhill & Co for $550 Million, Founded in 1996 by Ex-President of Morgan Stanley & Ex-Chairman of Smith Barney Robert Greenhill “
Scott Bok, Chairman & CEO, Greenhill: “We are pleased to be announcing a transaction that provides significant benefits to each of our stakeholders—clients, employees, and stockholders. Our clients will continue to receive the same high-quality advice from the same team, operating under the same brand, overseen by the same management.”
Shuji Matsuura, Chairman and CEO of Mizuho Americas: “We are thrilled to add one of the preeminent M&A firms globally to our platform, and we see meaningful synergies in the combination that will benefit all of our stakeholders. We look forward to making Greenhill’s M&A and restructuring capabilities available to our clients, and to offering our full range of solutions to Greenhill’s clients. The transaction represents an important strategic milestone, and we plan to continue to invest in the growth of our global banking franchise.”
Citi and Mizuho served as financial advisors, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as legal advisors to Mizuho. Houlihan Lokey served as financial advisor and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor to Greenhill.
About Mizuho
Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. is the 15th largest bank in the world as measured by total assets of ~ $2 trillion, according to S&P Global 2022. Mizuho’s 60,000 employees worldwide offer comprehensive financial services to clients in 35 countries and 800 offices throughout the Americas, EMEA and Asia. Mizuho Americas is the fastest growing region within the Mizuho Financial Group and is a leading provider of corporate and investment banking services to clients in the US, Canada and Latin America. Its capabilities span investment and corporate banking, capital markets, equity and fixed income sales & trading, derivatives, FX, custody and research. Mizuho Americas employs 3,000 professionals across 15 offices within the Americas.
About Greenhill
Greenhill is a leading independent investment bank focused on providing financial advice on significant mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financings and capital raising to corporations, partnerships, institutions and governments. We act for clients located throughout the world from our offices in New York, Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto. We were established in 1996 by Robert F. Greenhill, the former President of Morgan Stanley and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Smith Barney. In 2004 we were the first of several independent advisory firms to complete an initial public offering and list on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker GHL).
Since our founding, Greenhill has remained focused on the business of advising clients on important transactions, and has sought to grow by extending our geographic reach, by increasing our industry sector expertise and by broadening the types of transactions on which we advise. In terms of geographic expansion, in 1998 we entered the European market by opening a London office, and two years later we extended our European coverage by opening a Frankfurt office. In 2006-2009 we expanded our coverage of the North American market by opening offices in Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Toronto, and we also expanded to Japan by opening a Tokyo office. In 2010 we entered the Australian market by acquiring Caliburn, the leading independent investment bank in Australia, with offices in Melbourne and Sydney. Since then, we have continued to methodically build out our coverage in the Americas, Europe and Asia with new offices opened in Hong Kong in 2011, Stockholm in 2012, Madrid in 2017, Singapore in 2019 and Paris in 2020. In terms of industry sector coverage, we have recruited senior bankers with long experience and deep expertise in nearly every industry sector, and we continue to both recruit and develop additional talent to deepen that sector coverage. Lastly, in terms of types of advice, we initially focused exclusively on merger & acquisitions advice, in 2001 began offering financing advisory and restructuring services, and in 2010 entered the capital advisory business, where we advise both general partners and institutional investors on transactions relating to private equity fund investments and fund structuring. In 2015 we expanded our capital advisory business by acquiring Cogent Partners, the leading global advisor to endowments, pensions and other institutional investors on the sale of alternative assets in the secondary market.
Throughout our history, our Firm has been a strong generator of earnings and cash flow—in fact, we have spent more than $1.6 billion in dividends and share repurchases since our IPO. In September 2017, having come to the view that our common stock had become significantly undervalued, we announced a recapitalization plan designed to improve tax efficiency, increase employee ownership and enhance long term shareholder value while still maintaining our status as a public company. As part of the plan we secured credit ratings from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, borrowed $350 million and announced our intention to acquire up to $285 million of our common stock from outside investors. While implementation of this plan remains in progress, we have already repurchased a substantial portion of our stock and materially increased employee ownership.
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