Nomura Holdings plans to offer a private buyout fund to rich investors in Japan as part of chief executive officer Kentaro Okuda’s strategy to expand beyond traditional asset markets.

The firm’s flagship Nomura Securities will make the fund available from Monday (Oct 16) for so-called specified investors, including wealthy individuals who are deemed to be more sophisticated than regular retail investors, Japan’s largest brokerage said.

A third-party asset management firm will operate the fund that will place bets mainly on local unlisted firms. 

“We believe there’ll be around 13 trillion yen (S$119.1 billion) worth of potential demand from Japanese individuals alone for private assets” in 2025, Hideharu Mihara, a senior managing director of the securities unit in charge of retail products, said at a briefing. Mihara declined to name the third-party asset manager or discuss the fund’s expected returns.

Okuda has been seeking more stable streams of income as he tries to arrest three years of falling profit. One of his key initiatives since becoming CEO has been to expand into private markets, to offer clients more opportunities to invest in assets such as unlisted companies, real estate and infrastructure.  

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government is trying to persuade households to invest more of their 2.1 quadrillion yen in financial assets, more than half of which is in cash. Doing so would also help startups raise funds, according to the policy. BLOOMBERG

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