JPMorgan to pursue smaller deals in latest growth push

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is well known for advising some of the world's biggest companies on their most significant deals. Now the country's largest bank is looking to get a piece of the smaller pies.

The banking giant said Wednesday it's launching a dealmaking team catering to small-cap companies valued between $100 million and $500 million, according to an internal memo shared with Yahoo Finance.

The move expands JPMorgan's middle-market investment banking group that targets companies between $500 million and $1 billion and currently includes a little under 400 bankers.

The new small-cap group will be based in key US cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta. It'll initially focus on companies in diversified industries, consumer and retail, and business services with plans to hire more than 75 bankers in over the near term.

The team will be led by new hire Michael Flynn, a veteran investment banker who formerly served as a managing director for middle-market investment banking boutique G2 Capital Advisors. 

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the move.

The group will work with JPMorgan's commercial bank and private bank, as well as its investment banking team focused on midcap private equity firms. That gives the new team access to JPMorgan's existing banking relationships with smaller corporate clients.

It comes as JPMorgan and other big banks are pushing for growth amid a period of regulatory freedom and mega deals fueled by the AI frenzy.

JPMorgan remains deeply entrenched in the biggest end of Wall Street dealmaking. The bank has been among the biggest beneficiaries of this year's capital markets boom. It has worked on major equity and M&A transactions tied to AI and infrastructure, such as SpaceX's IPO last month and NextEra Energy Inc.'s merger with Dominion Energy Inc. earlier this year. 

But this latest push puts the country's largest lender further into a territory that has traditionally been the domain of boutique firms and regional lenders.

Next week, JPMorgan and its big bank rivals will kick off earnings, with a key question being how durable Wall Street's deal boom looks following the second quarter.

David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance covering the cryptocurrency and stock markets. Follow him on X at @DsHollers.

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