Japan Investment Banks Once Ugly Sisters Become Cinderellas
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Investment banks are among the first and biggest beneficiaries of Japan’s new economic-stimulus policies, known as Abenomics.
Since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came into office in December with a plan to end more than a decade of deflation, banks’ underwriting business for both equity and bonds is soaring. Companies have more than tripled sales of stocks to 1.7 trillion yen ($17 billion) so far this year compared with the same period in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Corporate bond issuances climbed to 3.1 trillion yen, the best start to a year since 2009, the data show.