Nomura cuts to hurt London
NOMURA, Japan’s biggest brokerage, outlined plans to dramatically scale back its European wholesale banking operations yesterday after a slump in its trading income in the past quarter.
The broker said it would triple its cost cuts to $1.2bn (£747m) per year after it plunged to a worse-than-expected net 46.1bn yen (£370m) quarterly loss, its first since 2009.
“These cuts are aimed at establishing a structure that can still respond even if the bad business environment remains intact for 18 months,” said its chief finance officer Junko Nakagawa.
About 60 per cent of the savings will come from its European operations where its wholesale bank is based and is home to 4,500 staff, or 13 per cent of its global workforce.
More than 1,000 jobs are expected to go in total.
The move will raise fears for Nomura’s employees at its high-profile new headquarters at One Angel Lane, opened by chancellor George Osborne only in April this year. City A.M. understands staff will be told today how they will be affected.
Nomura has come under pressure to cut down its lossmaking wholesale business, which made a pre-tax loss of 73bn yen, to focus on growing its Asian and US divisions.
Jesse Bhattal, head of its wholesale division, likened conditions to the last financial crisis. “I’ve been in the business a long time, many decades, and I certainly can’t remember a time when there was a single quarter that we saw such adverse market conditions,” he said.