At a time when overseas restructuring efforts at Nomura Holdings are starting to bear fruit, its CEO, Koji Nagai, is resigning.
After seven years helming Japan's biggest brokerage, Koji Nagai has decided to step down, handing the reins over to his deputy Kentaro Okuda. Nagai is scheduled to become chairman while Okuda will take the reins on April 1, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Shares of Nomura have climbed 69 percent from this year’s low in June, in part due to Nagai's efforts. The company reported profit climbing to the highest in 17 years in the most recent quarter. The chief dealt with the firm's overseas losses through three major cost-cutting exercises, with the most recent one taking place earlier this year.
Jury Still Is Out
Last June Nagai barely managed to keep his job, despite a large drop in shareholder approval over the company’s first annual loss in a decade and a scandal over its poor handling of price-sensitive information, as finews.asia reported.
«The jury is still out on whether Nomura has turned around but perhaps Nagai is simply stepping down with Nomura’s share price at a 52-week high,» said Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First Partners, who was quoted in «Bloomberg» (behind paywall).
Okuda, 56, who currently looks after the global wholesale business, now faces the challenge of reviving retail operations at home amid a slump in stock trading.
