Articles/Columns
MUFG Seeks to Expand Presence in U.S.
Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFG) is considering buying a U.S. regional bank by spending several billion dollars on the purchase. MUFG already owns UnionBanCal Corporation (UNBC), which was part of the global merger integration when The Bank of Tokyo (who owned Union Bank) merged with The Mitsubishi Bank (who owned The Bank of California) in 1996. Presently, Union Bank (primary subsidiary of UNBC) is a competitive regional bank in the Western U.S. with 403 banking offices; mainly in the States of California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas. In addition, UNBC entered into a definitive agreement in March 2012 to acquire Pacific Capital Bancorp for roughly 1.5 billion USD to expand their presence in California. Pacific Capital Bancorp is the parent company of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, which operates 47 bank branches in California. UnionBanCal had also acquired two regional banks in 2010 that added 56 branches to their portfolio. For investment banking operations, MUFG invested 9 billion USD into Morgan Stanley during the peak of the 2008 financial crisis and created a global strategic alliance by purchasing 20% of the firm. MUFG is now the largest common shareholder of Morgan Stanley. Investing in the U.S. market is sure to pay off in the long run, especially with the optimism for the U.S. economy in 2012 and beyond. Also, the U.S. is a high-margin market for Japanese companies that fit well with Japanese business aims, so further penetration of the U.S. market will provide growth potential for many outbound Japanese firms and job prospects for many local labor markets in the U.S. (win-win indeed). In 2010, Bloomberg ranked MUFG as Japan’s largest bank, and the world’s eighth largest bank. With MUFG’s strategic aim to increase their global commercial banking business, M&A developments both in Japan and in global markets will be interesting to witness as MUFG continues to expand with their local competitors, SMFG and Mizuho, close on their heels.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Share Price (past year in USD)
Source: Bloomberg
（2012/4/4 掲載）