Nomura promotes Morita, Okuda, positioning them as future CEOs
TOKYO: Nomura Holdings Inc said it is promoting company veterans Toshio Morita and Kentaro Okuda, strengthening their positions as contenders to become the future chief executive of Japan’s top brokerage.
Morita, who has been with Nomura since 1985, will become president of its key Nomura Securities subsidiary, taking the reins from Nomura’s group chief executive officer Koji Nagai, who will remain in charge of the holding company.
Nomura Securities is the brokerage’s core securities business, providing individual and institutional investors with, among others, investment advisory and securities underwriting services.
Morita is currently deputy president of Nomura Securities.
He was promoted last year with the mandate of strengthening Nomura’s domestic investment banking business, a move sources have said was a sign that Nagai regards Morita as a future successor.
Morita’s promotion was first reported yesterday by the Nikkei business daily.
Nomura also said Okuda, current joint head of its wholesale arm and head of investment banking, would become head of Americas, as Nomura shifts its US focus to client-oriented services from market-based trading in the region.
Okuda, who has been with Nomura since 1987, will be based in New York instead of Tokyo. His move is being viewed in company circles as Nagai giving Okuda an opportunity to compete against Morita as future CEO, according to people familiar with the matter.
Both Morita’s and Okuda’s new roles are effective from April 1.
Nagai himself, though, has given no hint that he’s thinking of leaving his post anytime soon.
The changes come as Nomura is set to post an annual profit in its international operations for the first time in seven years.
The Americas are a crucial region for Nomura, generating over half of its April-September overseas pretax profit.
Nomura’s Americas strategy under Nagai has been to focus on strengthening advisory services such as mergers and acquisitions advisory. — Reuters