Apollo Co-President Jim Zelter, joined Rich Park, Co-Head of Financial Sponsors & Strategic Solutions at Mizuho Americas, to discuss the alternative asset management firm’s investment strategy during Mizuho’s “Cleared for Conversation: Aviation Insights and Networking Summit” event in October. Mizuho served as Lead Arranger and Advisor to Apollo’s aviation lending platform PK Airfinance’s acquisition of a $920 million portfolio of secured aviation loans from Standard Chartered in August. 

Mizuho Americas was recognized by Project Finance International (PFI) with five awards in 2023, including Americas Bank of the Year, for its achievements in financing groundbreaking power, energy, and infrastructure projects. 

Mizuho Americas is committed to delivering attractive and effective funding solutions in support of critical infrastructure projects serving the energy needs of millions of people. This year, two such transactions were honored with awards from IJ Investor. 

The U.S. oil and gas industry is experiencing a period of rapid consolidation, marked by a flurry of mergers and acquisitions. With two of the largest deals announced this year, Nitin Kumar, Senior U.S. Energy Analyst, dissects the impact of this rapid consolidation and how the current market landscape plays a role in these major acquisitions.

The period of cash-only (or mostly) M&A transactions spurred by near zero interest rates has been replaced with tighter monetary policy, uncertain capital markets, anti-trust regulatory challenges and geopolitical conflicts. During our recent Finance Leaders Forum in September, Atish Basu, Mizuho Americas’ Head of Industrials Investment & Corporate Banking, led a panel discussion with Kevin Costantino, President and Co-Head of US M&A, Greenhill & Co. and Mizuho Americas’ Moshe Tomkiewicz, Head of Investment Grade Debt Capital Markets, and Seth Mair, Managing Director, Head of Investment Grade Loan Capital Markets, on current M&A dealmaking and financing trends as the market adjusts to a new normal.

In our latest Markets Mindset roundtable, Mizuho Investment & Corporate Banking experts, Jeb Slowik and Moshe Tomkiewicz give their thoughts on recent trends within the Leveraged Finance and Investment Grade markets respectively. Victor Forte, Head of Investment Grade Capital Markets & Syndicate, leads the discussion on the factors affecting their markets including recent events in the Middle East and if the Fed will keep rates higher for longer.

Mizuho Americas plays an active role in helping support LatAm infrastructure through its financing of critical projects designed to accelerate progress in the region and improve the quality of life of its population. Two such deals were just acknowledged with LatinFinance 2023 Project & Infrastructure Finance Awards. 

With the continued developments of AI across platforms, the integration of the technology and potential magnitude of its impact has left investors and stakeholders with question on its credibility, effectiveness, and efficiency in this new age of technology. At Mizuho’s AI in Focus conference, leading technology experts shared their unique insights and perspectives on the future of AI and what this means for companies and the future of work.

In this quarter’s Markets Mindset, Mizuho experts Josh Weismer and Andy Laszlo explore the current state of Equity Capital Markets, their insights from Q3 and outlook for the remainder of 2023 and beyond. After a volatile 18 months, the IPO market is rebounding. Alignment between investor demand and seller valuation has led to increased activity spurred by deal making in the Technology, Media & Telecom sector.