(Bloomberg) -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is planning to hire seven bankers in its London office as part of a new push to bank more technology startups.
The hires will be part of a new growth and middle market and technology banking team focused on Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said Bob Blee, who leads that business for MUFG globally. Already, the company hired Bank of Ireland’s Adam Ball to lead the new franchise.
MUFG has long leaned on its sprawling footprint across Asia to establish ties to the world’s largest technology firms. But the latest push comes as a growing number of Wall Street lenders have looked to bank more middle-market companies as the number of blockbuster deals have slowed in recent quarters with many clients instead focusing on doing smaller, bolt-on acquisitions.
To that end, MUFG last year hired more than 20 people from Silicon Valley Bank last year in the aftermath of the regional bank’s collapse, including Blee. The lender now has 30 bankers across the US focused on providing loans, deposits and other banking products and services to upstart companies.
“We are committed to scaling up whilst offering stability and a true understanding of risks in this sector,” Blee said in a statement.
For now, Ball’s team will focus on the UK and Ireland, though it plans to ultimately expand into other countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In addition to reporting to Blee, Ball will also report to Holly Villiers, deputy head of global corporate and investment banking for MUFG in the region.
“It’s a very natural add-on to where we’re already working with those slightly larger cap names where we’ve had historic relationships,” Villiers said. This new team “responds directly to the financing requirements of the middle-market sector.”
MUFG is leaning into lending as the Bank of Japan raised rates for the second time in 17 years in July, moves that investors have been betting will buoy banks’ revenue. Last month, the lender and rival Mizuho Financial Group Inc. reported fiscal first-quarter profit that beat estimates and put them on course for record annual earnings.
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