Investment · Banking / investment banking
SMBC to lift Jefferies stake to up to 15% as alliance expands into U.S. investment banking
- Investor
- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) (Tokyo)
- In
- Jefferies Financial Group, New York
- Value
- Status
- Announced. Later superseded by the September 2025 plan to raise the stake to up to 20%.
- Date
- 2023-04-27
SMBC, which held about 4.5% of Jefferies, said it would buy more shares and raise its economic ownership to as much as 15% on a fully diluted basis, mostly via non-voting stock. The partners agreed to jointly cover US investment-grade clients, with Jefferies leading equities and M&A and SMBC handling credit and debt capital markets. Reaching 10% would allow SMBC to nominate a Jefferies director. No dollar amount was given.
Why it matters
This was the template for Japanese megabanks using minority stakes to gain US investment-banking reach without a full takeover, a step the bank later deepened in 2025.
How the stake works
SMBC planned to buy Jefferies common shares and swap them for non-voting preferred shares that must later convert into non-voting common stock. That needed Jefferies shareholders to approve a new class of shares. The two firms had first formed their alliance in 2021, and the new joint work would be co-branded.
About Jefferies
Jefferies, founded in 1968 and based in New York, is the largest independent full-service investment bank headquartered in the US. In 2022 it ranked sixth in global M&A and equity capital markets, earned net revenue of $6.0 billion and net income of $777 million, and managed more than $45 billion in alternative assets.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
