(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. is adding bankers across its Nordic operations as the Wall Street behemoth increasingly takes on European lenders on their home turf.
The firm is adding staff across business lines, with a focus on mid-sized corporations, Jonas Wikmark, co-head of JPMorgan’s Nordic unit, said in an interview in Stockholm. The New York-based bank currently employs over 100 staff in Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Oslo, having increased headcount in the region by more than half since 2020.
“We’re hiring as we speak in investment banking, in corporate banking and in private banking and across seniority,” Wikmark said. “There is an extra focus on the mid-cap space to serve corporates, private equity as well as early earlier stage companies with our new innovation economy team.”
The Wall Street bank has been working to win business with smaller corporate and even retail clients across Europe in a push to take market share from local rivals. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s longtime chief executive officer, has been plowing money into acquisitions and investments in recent years to build out offerings and fend off competition.
While big companies have typically accounted for the bulk of dealmaking in the Nordic region, the firm is now looking to increase efforts to attract companies in an earlier stage, said Klaus Thune, the firm’s other Nordic co-head.
Especially green technology is “strongly represented” in the region, and creating “a lot of dynamic,” Thune said in the same interview.
Earlier this year, JPMorgan helped arrange a $5 billion debt deal for Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB. That company has since pushed back plans for an initial public offering because of a challenging market and operational problems, though Thune said that hasn’t changed JPMorgan’s belief in the many green transition projects in the region.
“When there are delays to projects in an inflationary environment, it obviously has an impact on returns and timing,” Thune said.
Despite the drought in initial public offerings, the bank continues to see “very strong” growth throughout the Nordics and across business lines, said Thune. This year, its’ the debt side that has been driving a lot of the business, he said.
“Spreads are at a historically attractive level,” he said. “This is a more healthy, normal environment and corporates are taking advantage of the tight spreads to refinance.”
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
