Japan's Nomura sells stake in venture capital firm Jafco

[TOKYO] Nomura Holdings said on Friday it had sold all its shares of its stake in Jafco back to the venture capital firm, as the Japanese brokerage seeks to shift capital into areas where it sees more growth.

Nomura, Japan's largest brokerage and investment bank, said in May it wanted to use its capital more efficiently. It is currently expanding its US investment banking business.

Selling the stake in Jafco would "contribute to Nomura's drive to enhance capital efficiency and optimally allocate its management resources," Nomura said.

Shares in Nomura closed down 1.5 per cent at 650.1 yen, while Jafco shares ended up more than 15 per cent at 5,260 yen, their highest since October 2015. The benchmark Nikkei average index fell 0.6 per cent.

Nomura sold its 8.48 million shares, or 17.6 per cent stake, in Jafco, at 4,560 yen per share, raising 38.7 billion yen (S$472.57 million), Nomura said in a statement.

Nomura Research Institute Ltd, in which Nomura holds a 37.2 per cent stake, tendered to sell 4.95 million Jafco shares, Jafco said.

Jafco said it was buying 13.4 million shares from the two tenders for 61.3 billion yen.

The deal would generate for Nomura a pretax profit of about 9 billion yen, to be booked in the July-September period, Nomura said.

In a separate statement, Jafco said it would tender 5 million shares in Nomura Research Institute, adding that if it sold all the shares it planned to book a gain of 18.4 billion yen in the July-September period.

In May, Nomura Holdings began unofficial talks with Japan Post Holdings to sell a stake in group company Nomura Real Estate Holdings, a source told Reuters.

The deal broke down in June. Nomura Real Estate said Japan Post was no longer considering buying a stake.

After the Jafco sale, chief financial officer Takumi Kitamura told a conference call Nomura was not planning to sell holdings in Nomura Real Estate and Nomura Research Institute, in which it has 34.1 per cent and 37.2 per cent stakes, respectively.

REUTERS