Nomura Can Finally Focus on a Bigger Prize
Shedding the legacy of its foreign mishaps leaves the Japanese brokerage clear to concentrate on China.
Japan’s biggest brokerage has its eye on China.
Photographer: Toru Hanai/BloombergNomura Holdings Inc.’s overseas operations are at last solidly in the black after years of flip-flopping between expansion and retrenchment. After a fourth straight quarterly profit, the Japanese brokerage is primed for its biggest international test: building a wealth management business in China. This time, it has a real chance of success.
On Thursday, Nomura reported net income of 57.1 billion yen ($524 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, led by bond trading and sales of mutual funds to Japanese investors. That compared with a loss of 95.3 billion yen a year earlier. The wholesale unit, mainly comprising international investment-banking and trading activities, stayed in profit for a third quarter.