The Japanese investment giant has its eyes on a purchase in the US, its CEO says..

Japan’s largest bank Mitsubishi UFJ Group wants to accelerate its entry into the global asset management arena with a purchase amounting to at least $2.5 billion in the US, chief executive Nobuyuki Hirano told the Financial Times.

The chief executive said MUFG, which has a market value of close to $100bn, will make the US investment within the next three years to complete the “missing piece” of the bank’s business there, the FT reported.

The Japanese firm already has a 21 per cent stake in Morgan Stanley and ownerships in a number of retail banks in the US, the newspaper said.

“It is possible that we will acquire one of the well-managed asset management companies [in the US],” Hirano was quoted as saying, noting that the firm could collaborate with Morgan Stanley.

The report said that US asset managers falling into MUFG’s target range would be firms such as Evercore, WisdomTree, AllianceBernstein and Janus Capital.