Its US operations, primarily investment banking and trading, account for about a third of the Japanese brokerage’s profits.

It was the highest-ranked Asian firm in the US investment banking rankings in the first half of the year, 12th in both equity and debt underwriting and 18th in mergers and acquisitions advisory, according to Refinitiv data.

Hamamoto said in an interview that target companies or potential partners may have strengths in specific sectors, such as research firms, asset managers or boutique investment banks.

In some industry sectors, such as healthcare, Mizuho wants to expand coverage to include more bankers, he said.

“It’s not necessarily a merger, it could be a business alliance,” Hamamoto added.

This year, Mizuho Group acquired Capstone Partners, a Dallas, Texas-based private equity placement agency that helps private equity firms find limited partners to invest in their funds.

Hamamoto also said the brokerage plans to expand its business by connecting global investors with Japanese startups that have attracted interest in recent years.

Despite global market reverberations, funds raised by Japanese startups in the first six months of the year rose 11% from a year earlier to 400 billion yen ($3 billion), according to data provider INITIAL.

“The Japanese startup segment used to be small with only a select few domestic investors, but that’s changing,” Hamamoto said.

($1 = 132.98 yen)