MizuhoFinancial Group Inc. unit Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. hired Hiroshi Udagawa asdeputy head of its equities division, Bloomberg News reported July 20, citing acompany spokesman.

Udagawa joined the brokerage earlier in July. Most recently,he served as managing director at Whiz Partners Inc., an asset manager. Priorto that, he was co-head of Japan equities at UBS Group AG.