Recently, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities started publishing equity research on US stocks for the first time with a focus on the energy, real estate investment trust, and technology sectors. The firm’s initial research team is comprised of four analysts.
New Research Team
The new US equity research team is made up of four experienced analysts including Karin Ford, Stephen Bersey, Barret Blaschke and Mike McAllister.
Karin Ford, who joined MUFG during the summer, previously worked at KeyBanc Capital Markets as a senior analyst in real estate research, will cover REITs. Prior to Key Banc, Ms. Ford held equity research positions at Banc of America Securites, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.
Stephen Bersey, who joined the team at MUFG a few months ago, will cover technology. Mr. Bersey has worked as a sell-side analyst at SG Cowen, Bear Stearns, CitiGroup, and CL King, and has worked as a buy-side analyst at Mitsubishi Trust and Deutsche Asset Management.
Barrett Blaschke, who joined MUFG as an equity salesperson/desk analyst in 2014 from RBC Capital Markets, will cover the midstream energy sector. He was part of the energy investment banking group at RBC.
Michael McAllister, who joined MUFG in 2013, will cover the oil and gas sector. Mr. McAllister previously worked as a sell-side research analyst at Sterne Agee and Oppenheimer & Co., and as a buy-side analyst at Mitsubishi Trust and Jemmco Capital.
Background on MUFG
Mitsubishi UFJ Securities is the London-based investment banking arm of one of the largest financial institutions in the world, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. The firm has historically made its mark covering the Japanese equity market, though it has covered other Asian markets as well.
During the past five years, the business has expanded its equity platform to cover all sectors, specifically across oil and gas, utilities, REITS / financials, and other sectors, with over 50 initial public and secondary offerings in 2014.
Our Take
While MUFG has produced equity research in the Japanese and Asian markets for many years, the firm has never published research on US companies before — though the firm has had a very active US-based corporate access program.
However, the recent move to produce research coverage of US companies should not be surprising. We suspect that the real impetus behind this move is to enable MUFG to better serve its Japanese and Asian-based customers by providing them with access to US IPOs. This ultimately means that MUFG needs to win US banking mandates requiring the firm to support its US investment banking business by providing research coverage.
Consequently, we suspect MUFG will slowly expand its equity research group in the US by deepening coverage in REITs, energy, and technology, while also broadening its coverage into other sectors where it currently provides corporate access services such as financial services and healthcare.