And now Nomura's pulling back from prime broking too
In the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake, it's perhaps unfair to focus on the travails of Japanese companies. And yet... something seems to be going on at Nomura.
Last week, we reported that Nomura was making redundancies in its commodities business. Now, a hedge fund manager tells us it's also been clearing out entire swathes of its London prime brokerage sales team, from management down. "They say they're staying in the business, but it looks like everyone's gone," he tells us.
A spokesman for Nomura confirms that they have indeed been "scaling back," but says it's no big deal: redundancies are in single digits.
The diminution of Nomura's pb aspirations may have been planned for some time. Nomura's global head of prime services resigned in December, suggesting he may have had advance knowledge of the apparent decision not to try to be a global prime broking powerhouse after all, as was the apparent intention back in 2009.
However, the inevitable question has to be, what next? Nomura has just appointed a new EMEA CEO. A review of the business and further aspirational downscaling may follow.
It's also hard not to question the possible impact of events in Japan on Nomura's appetite for international expansion. Its wholesale business was unprofitable in the first nine months of this year. Will the Japanese bank really continue to subsidise expansion overseas in the light of disaster at home?
