Japans Nomura to cut $1.0b in costs

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Japans Nomura to cut $1.0b in costs

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However the bulked-up Nomura lost some key executives as a corporate culture clash hit.

06 September,2012 12:10 pm

Nomura Holdings said Thursday it would cut $1.0 billion in costs, part of a bid to repair its balance sheet as Japans biggest brokerage recovers from an embarrassing insider trading scandal.The firm said it planned to usher in the sweeping cuts by March 2014 across its global operations with about 45 percent of the reductions coming from its operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.In an investor presentation released Thursday, the company did not reveal specifics of the cuts, including any job losses, but said it planned to transform its information technology expenses as it improves business efficiencies, and rationalise (the) management structure.In July, Nomura said profit in its fiscal first-quarter to June shrank almost 90 percent owing to weakness in its retail and wholesale trading business.Like many investment banks, Nomura has struggled with yo-yoing stock and bond prices, poor merger prospects and tightening regulation in the wake of the global financial crisis.The firm began an aggressive expansion drive when it picked up some European operations from Lehman Brothers -- and thousands of its employees -- following the Wall Street giants collapse.The resignation last month of chief executive Kenichi Watanabe, a key driver behind the firms expansion, was widely viewed as the end of Nomuras ambitions to be a global heavyweight.