Nomura posts profit on retail, trading operations
Nomura posts profit on retail, trading operations
Tokyo: Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan’s largest brokerage, reported a second straight quarterly profit that beat forecasts, thanks to robust sales of investment trusts and gains in trading commissions.
The results show that Nomura’s expansion of its trading business in Europe through the purchase of some operations of failed investment bank Lehman Brothers is paying off.
Nomura last year bought Lehman Brothers’ Asian, European and Middle East operations. Its global peers, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co, have also benefited from strong trading revenue.
Nomura posted a 28.3 billion yen ($310 million) net profit for July-September, compared with a 72.9 billion yen loss a year earlier and beating the average estimate of 6.2 billion yen profit in a survey of three analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Nomura benefited from demand for investment trusts from retail investors seeking higher returns from foreign shares.
Nomura Chief Executive Kenichi Watanabe said on Tuesday the brokerage was now rebuilding its US operation after it shrank the business there following heavy losses in the residential mortgage-backed securities arena. The US expansion was part of the reason why Nomura increased its capital this month by selling about $4.7 billion shares, Watanabe said.
Nomura is capitalising on the retreat of some Wall Street firms and boosting its fixed income operations in the United States. It hired two senior bankers from Barclays and Citigroup Inc as co-heads to cement the business in the Americas.
Prior to the announcement, shares of Nomura rose 0.3% to 643 yen. Tokyo’s brokerage sector subindex fell 0.1%.
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