Management at independent investment bank Greenhill & Co. thinks its
prime time for dealmaking in Japan -- so much so that the firm opened an office in Tokyo to advise on domestic and cross-border merger, acquisition and restructuring opportunities. Greenhill hired Kensuke Hotta as chairman of Greenhill Japan. Hiroto Yamada, formerly head of Merrill Lynch Japan's M&A group, will join Greenhill in January as a managing director.
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Scott Bok and Simon Borrows, co-CEOs of Greenhill, said the
extraordinary recent events in global equity and credit markets have
highlighted the unique attractions of the Greenhill business model --
which is a focus on advising corporate clients. Founder Robert
Greenhill (pictured) was quoted by FT.com as saying "Japan is a
well-developed market ...
corporations are strong and liquid now,
and they weren't in this position 10 years ago; companies now have the
liquidity to do things they have been wanting to do for years."
On
the new hires: Hotta was an adviser to Morgan Stanley Japan, where he
previously served as chairman for seven years. Prior to that, he worked at
Sumitomo Bank Ltd., where he created an M&A department. Hotta also
served with the Japan Ministry of Finance.
Prior to his M&A role at Merrill Lynch, Yamada spent nine years at
Goldman, Sachs & Co. covering financial institutions,
telecommunications media and technology.
Greenhill also has offices in New York, London, Frankfurt, Toronto, Dallas and San Francisco.
Bok
and Borrows said in a statement, "Over time, we intend to expand client
coverage to all important industry sectors and all important geographic
regions." -
Baz HiralalRead the Greenhill press releaseGo to the story from FT.com
