TOKYO, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Lincoln International, a Chicago-based advisory firm for mergers and acquisitions, plans to increase its Japan operations fivefold in the next few years, saying there is plenty of opportunity to take share in small M&A transactions.
Lincoln now has four professional bankers in Tokyo and may have as many as 20 within two to three years, said Keiji Miyakawa, who became chairman of Lincoln's Tokyo unit this month.
Miyakawa, who used to be the head of Deutsche Bank's Japan mergers and advisory business, said the number of transactions would increase as Japanese companies seek growth by consolidation and going overseas.
"Some 95 percent of Japan's mergers and acquisitions are less than $100 million, and major investment banks are targeting transactions worth more than $1 billion," Miyakawa told Reuters in an interview, adding the market for smaller transactions was not well covered in Japan.
Japan had 2,948 M&A transactions last year, of which 94 percent, or 2,776 deals, were worth less than $100 million, according to Thomson Reuters data. (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)