Mizuho plans tapping BlackRock for acquiring Asian investment managers

The move will give way for the bank to invest Japanese pension money fast growing Asian economies.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan’s third-largest bank by market value, may seek to buy investment advisory firms in Asia with BlackRock Inc. after purchasing a stake in the world’s biggest asset manager last year.

Mizuho is studying ways to deepen ties with New York-based BlackRock to aid a strategy of investing Japanese pension money in faster-growing Asian economies, Yasuhiro Sato, president of Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd., said in an interview.

The Tokyo-based bank aims to leverage the 2 percent stake in BlackRock it bought for $500 million in November to compete with larger rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., which tied up with Barclays Plc last year in wealth management. The number of millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region reached 3 million in 2009, matching those in Europe for the first time, according to data from Capgemini SA and Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch & Co. unit.

“The stake in BlackRock alone wouldn’t be enough to manage a substantial amount of money in Asia,” Sato said on Feb. 8. “Acquisitions of management firms in the region will be the next step.”

Sato didn’t specify how an acquisition made together with BlackRock would be structured.

View the full story in Bloomberg.