Nomura posts 4th straight quarterly profit, led by wholesale business

Tokyo

NOMURA Holdings Inc, Japan's biggest brokerage and investment bank, on Thursday posted a 57.1 billion yen (S$709 million) third-quarter net profit, marking a fourth straight quarterly profit.

Nomura, which is in the midst of a management reshuffle, had recorded a 95.3 billion yen net loss in the same period last year, its heaviest quarterly loss in nearly a decade, due to a big write-off in its wholesale business.

Brokerage Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley had estimated a third-quarter profit of 38.94 billion yen.

Pre-tax income for the wholesale segment, which serves corporations and institutional investors, came in at 43.2 billion yen for the three months through December, compared with a 95.9 billion yen pre-tax loss a year ago.

The retail division posted 17.6 billion yen in pre-tax income, up 26 per cent from a year earlier, due to improvement in market conditions.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei share average rose about 8.1 per cent in the three months through December.

Nomura has been in a heavy cost-cutting mode for the past year and is aiming for about 140 billion yen in cost cuts by March 2022.

The investment bank has announced it is promoting joint operations chief Kentaro Okuda as its new chief executive, replacing Koji Nagai, its longest-serving CEO in three decades, who will become chairman.

The changes are effective from Apr 1.

Mr Okuda has pledged to speed up the pace of reform at Nomura. REUTERS