Nomura said planning to withdraw from European equity business

[TOKYO] Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan's largest brokerage, plans to shut down its European equity operations as it cuts costs after years of failing to become profitable overseas, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

The Tokyo-based securities firm will shutter equity research, sales, trading and underwriting for European stocks, according to the person, who didn't say how many jobs will be lost.

An announcement of the move, along with job reductions in the Americas, may come as early as today, said the person, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

Nomura, which had 3,433 employees in Europe and 2,501 in the Americas as of Dec 31, has been considering overhauling its overseas businesses since Chief Executive Officer Koji Nagai in February postponed a goal to earn 50 billion yen (S$621.35 million) of pretax profit abroad.

Nomura may dismiss about 20 per cent of its workforce in North America, people with knowledge of the situation said last month.

Kenji Yamashita, Nomura's Tokyo-based spokesman, declined to comment on the reorganization in Europe.

Nomura reported a 50.6 billion yen pretax loss at its European operations for the nine months to Dec 31. The securities firm last posted an annual profit outside of Japan in the year ended March 2010.

The Japanese firm has gone through a series of expansions and contractions outside of Japan over the years.

It bought bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's European and Asian operations in 2008, only to pare back operations in the regions later, after costs and losses swelled.

BLOOMBERG