Mizuho Financial Group formed an alliance with Malayan Banking Bhd on stock research and trading in Southeast Asia, as the Japanese lender complements an equities hiring push with partnerships.
Maybank Kim Eng, the investment-banking arm of Malaysia’s largest bank, will provide Japanese institutional clients of Mizuho Securities Co with research on companies in Southeast Asia as well as trading execution services, the companies said in a statement yesterday.
Mizuho is expanding its equities business abroad after recruiting dozens of analysts, salesmen and traders to handle mainly Japanese stocks. It formed a tie-up with UK firm Redburn Europe earlier this year to offer equity services to Japanese institutional investors that are seeking higher returns as negative interest rates curtail opportunities at home.
The alliance with Kuala Lumpur-based Maybank will also give Mizuho’s clients access to senior managers of companies in Southeast Asia. It’s the first time the Tokyo-based bank will offer research and corporate access in the region.
Like Redburn, Maybank will earn commissions by trading stocks for Mizuho’s clients, and the Japanese bank will get fees for acting as an intermediary on the transactions, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Mizuho chief executive officer Yasuhiro Sato is seeking to boost revenue from sales and trading by 25% in three years from about $3bn in the year ended March 2016, an investor presentation showed in June.
Profit of Mizuho Securities fell 42% to ¥9.5bn ($95mn) in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier. Revenue climbed 2.8% to ¥124.3bn. 
The Japanese firm has hired three analysts in Asia excluding Japan since May, according to an internal memo. Jaj Singh, who was most recently with Nomura Holdings, joined in July as executive director and head of financials research for the region. Dale Gai and Kevin Wang started in May to cover the technology industry.
Mizuho also hired Hiroshi Udagawa last month as deputy head of its equity division in Tokyo. Udagawa worked for UBS Group for 17 years.