Nomura gets nasty

23 March 2010

2 minute read

Two years ago the name Nomura wouldn't exactly spring to mind as one of the key firms shaking up the senior recruitment market in Australia.

But earlier this month an investment banking delegate at the eFinancialCareers recruitment roundtable singled out the Japanese bank as a serious talent threat to the more established foreign firms. Nobody disagreed with her.

And now look what happened this morning. Several RBS analysts have walked out to join Nomura. According to The Australian, they include David Cook (retail), Richard Johnson (industrial), David Stanton (health) and Simon Thackery (building). The first three are bring their teams with them too.

The message from Tokyo is clear: expand. Jesse Bhattal, Nomura's new global head of banking, has said Australia is an important market for his firm, which is aiming to become a top-tier global investment bank.

Nomura first demonstrated its local pulling power back in November when it hired the experienced Peter Meurer, former vice-chairman of Citi Australia, to head its domestic banking operations. Then in January, it secured an ASX licence as part of its drive to become a full-service i-bank here.

Expect more Nomura hiring in ECM this year as the firm expands its equities operations alongside its traditional DCM base. And junior positions might also be opening up.

"Nomura has shown it can attract MD-level bankers from the likes of RBS, Deutsche and Merrills. Now it needs to backfill," comments one Sydney headhunter who asked not to be named.

Nomura might find it easier to attract and retain talent in Australia than in Europe and ex-Japan Asia. In Hong Kong, for example, several ex-Lehman Brothers employees have quit the firm after receiving the final installment of their two-year guaranteed bonus. In Australia, however, the Lehman business was comparatively small so Nomura's integration issues aren't as significant.

AUTHORSimon Mortlock

Content Manager

Ji
Jimmy
26 March 2010
Nomura has a lot of ground to make up locally in the ECM stakes compared to the likes of UBS and Macquarie in my opinion . If I were the CFO of a large corporate raising equity I'd prefer a tried and tested firm in the local market rather than the new kid on the block having a crack at something new............ Good luck to the new entrants at Nomura though. The firm obviously had the cheque book out, however, I think the last few years would have been difficult at RBS (given the extent of the UK bailout) so it may have taken less to move those analysts than you might think. The above is my opinion only.
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Go
Gordon
25 March 2010
Nomura has never shown any real sustained comittment to the Australian Equity Market since 1984 when they first entered. They exit Australia every 5 years or so and come back to equities/corp finance at the end of every bull market by essentially overpaying for ordinary people. Good luck to the guys getting good remuneration deals by listening to their headhunters but keep your resumes up to date boys those same headhunters surely wont be there to help you on the way out in a year or so. You wont have job security but dont in equities anyway. They have and will again be absolutely ruthless overnight too and the former Lehman Australia team they purchased here still has big legacy issues from allegedly misleading investors as many councils are now suing them for selling dud investments...how much of that carries over to corporate/insto relationships here who knows. It looks bad though. Doubt many corporates will trust in them for ECM/M&A/IB etc because of these issues. Nomura faces big headwinds. Just my read. Free country.
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