Nomura needs offshore focus
Nomura Holdings Inc turned in laudable first-quarter results yesterday, with profits up 22 per cent, but Japan’s largest brokerage needs to keep its eye on the overseas ball.
Cost cutting and a revival in domestic retail broking helped Nomura offset the fixed-income trading slump that’s beset Wall Street rivals and local peer Daiwa Securities Group Inc.
Buoyant results at home don’t mean Nomura can forget about its overseas growth strategy, however.
For the three months ended June 30, net income climbed to 56.9 billion yen (Dh1.8 billion, $513 million), from 46.8 billion yen a year earlier. Mr and Mrs Watanabe were to thank for much of that. Things were less rosy in wholesale, where pretax profit dipped 46 per cent from the same period a year ago, although notably, stayed in the black. Some softness was to be expected, considering Nomura has exited much of its equity business in Europe, laying off hundreds of staff over the past 12 months.
But domestic retail investors can’t always be counted upon, and that doesn’t just come down to the nation’s peculiar demographics.
Individual investors can be fickle. Chief Financial Officer Takumi Kitamura noted in the press briefing after Nomura’s results that selling pressure had emerged as Japan’s Nikkei-225 Stock Average neared the 20,000 level.
That recent rise in trading turnover could evaporate at short notice. That means Nomura must keep its international operations — primarily its wholesale division — profitable.
Increasing stake
Currently, the strategy seems mainly to involve plans to hire North American M&A bankers, something Daiwa has been doing more aggressively too. Daiwa said earlier last week it was purchasing US investment bank Signal Hill Holdings LLC, and is increasing its stake in New York-based Sagent Advisors LLC.
M&A advisory makes sense given that both Nomura and Daiwa have close ties with cash-rich Japanese firms that will need to expand offshore to grow.
Considering Nomura has had some expensive misadventures overseas before, nobody is expecting a large buildout. But some measured buying here and there wouldn’t go amiss, especially as Nomura, with a common equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 18.1 per cent, can afford to spend.
A more clearly articulated offshore strategy is crucial Nomura wants to keep its post-earnings glow. if