Nomura Overhauls International Operations
Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank has announced a raft of cost-cutting measures, which includes job cuts in Asia, that will see the firm go back to basics to turn around its business.
Japanese financial holding company Nomura Holdings will embark on a raft of cost-cutting measures, which includes jobs cuts globally and a restructuring of its international operations, the firm said on Thursday, the Financial Times reported.
The firm said it hopes to turn around its ailing fortunes with a «radical simplification of its operating model» after incurring a net loss of $907 million from April to December 2018, its worst performance since the financial crisis.
As part of the package of cuts that total $1 billion, the firm will close 30 of its 156 domestic retail branches, and make an unspecified number of job cuts around the world.
The measures will be implemented over the medium term, with 60 percent completed by the end of the financial year to March 2020, Nomura joint COO Kentaro Okuda said in an investor day presentation, Reuters reported.
Global Restructuring
According to Bloomberg, eight out of nine employees of its equity research employees in Singapore have been let go. The firm has also cut at least 10 jobs at its equities business in Hong Kong.
The firm is also cutting 100 jobs from London, the center of its European business, as it aims for a 50 percent cost reduction for its trading business on the continent.
As part of its global restructuring, the firm will reduce international flow business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by 50 percent, while sharpening its focus on Asia and the Americas. This includes pursuing «strategic growth opportunities» in China, where the bank got regulatory approval to set up a majority-owned brokerage joint venture last week.
«The deep cuts in London and New York mark the final abandonment of Nomura’s dream of challenging bulge-bracket US rivals,» FT said, noting the tough environment mid-ranking investment banks face around the world with low market volatility, strict regulation and a growing shift to algorithmic trading.
