Nomura stays in black over its first half
JAPANESE bank Nomura yesterday said it had remained in the black for a second successive quarter, boosted by strong trading volumes and robust sales of investment trusts.
Though the bank’s investment banking division posted a pre-tax loss of 9.7bn yen (£64.3m), echoing weak performances from rival divisions across the Wall Street banking giants over the past few weeks, Nomura managed to generate an overall pre-tax profit of 27.3bn yen over the three months to September.
The bank, which last year bought the Asian, European and Middle Eastern operations of failed rival Lehman Brothers, made a pre-tax profit of 58.7bn yen over the first half of the year, compared to a loss of 153.6bn yen in the same period in 2008.
“After one year of combined operations, the acquisitions have been a resounding success,” said president and chief executive Kenichi Watanabe. “The results are another solid step in our drive to become a truly global investment bank.”
Nomura’s asset management division booked a pre-tax profit of 4.5bn yen over the second quarter as demand surged among retail investors keen to achieve higher returns from foreign shares.
Its merchant bank arm returned to a 1.3bn yen profit for the first time in a year following the sale of its stake in Kawamura Electric and a gain from the increase in valuation of a bio-pharma venture investment.
Nomura said its core tier one capital ratio, the key measure of a bank’s financial strength, stood at 13.3 per cent, rising to 17.3 per cent when taking into account increased shareholder capital from a global share offering in October.