The story
History
Origins
The history of Nomura began on December 25, 1925, when Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. (NSC) was established in Osaka, as a spin-off from Securities Dept. of Osaka Nomura Bank Co., Ltd (the present day Resona Bank). NSC initially focused on the bond market. It was named after its founder Tokushichi Nomura II, a wealthy Japanese businessman and investor. He had earlier established Osaka Nomura bank in 1918, based on the Mitsui zaibatsu model with a capital of ¥10 million. Like the majority of Japanese conglomerates, or zaibatsu, its origins were in Osaka, but today operates out of Tokyo. NSC gained the authority to trade stock in 1938, and went public in 1961.
Lehman Brothers acquisition
In October 2008, Nomura acquired most of Lehman Brothers' Asian operations together with its European equities and investment banking units to make one of the world's largest independent investment banks with ¥20,300bn (£138bn) assets under management. In April 2009, the global headquarters for investment banking was moved out of Tokyo to London as part of a strategy to move the company's focus from Japan to global markets, with Josh Tokley appointed Head of UK Investments. Following his subsequent suspension, Tokley was replaced by Michael Coombs.
Nomura paid $225 million for the purchase of Lehman's Asia-Pacific unit. Due to large losses with shares dropping to their lowest level in nearly 37 years, Nomura cut around 5 percent of its staff in Europe (as many as 500 people) in mid-September 2011.
Greentech acquisition
In December 2019, Nomura announced that it would acquire Greentech Capital Advisors, a boutique investment bank with stated aims of assisting clients across sustainable technology and infrastructure. The transaction is expected to close on March 31, 2020.
Greentech will be rebranded to "Nomura Greentech" and will form part of their Investment Banking franchise in the U.S.
Macquarie asset management acquisition
In April 2025, Nomura agreed to acquire Macquarie's U.S. and European public asset management business in a $1.8 billion all-cash deal. As a result, Nomura's investment management division will take on roughly $180 billion in new assets across equities, fixed income and multi-asset strategies, for a total of approximately $770 billion in total assets under management (AUM). Expected to close by the end of 2025, the acquisition represents Nomura's largest international expansion since 2008, when it bought Lehman Brothers' Asian and European assets.
History
Background (before 1925)
Nomura was founded by Tokushichi Nomura, father of Nomura Securities founder Tokushichi Nomura II as a money changing business. This was just before the Meiji Restoration, the move to setting up a bank was a logical extension and progression of this business as times changed. Changes included the founding of stock exchanges in Tokyo and Osaka as the country became industrialised. Key amongst these changes was the Japanese government's decision to issue foreign currency denominated public bonds to fund the Russo-Japanese War; Nomura employed English speaking staff so that they could take on this international business.
By 1906 Nomura had founded an in-house research department headed up by former Osaka newspaper journalist Kisaku Hashimoto. This was responsible for publishing the Osaka Nomura Business News with trading news, stock analysis and current economic trends. Research combined with a substantial newspaper advertising campaign helped raise the profile of Nomura. By 1917, Nomura had gone public and soon after Osaka Nomura Bank (the present day Resona Bank) was set up, within this business there was a securities section to handle bond sales and underwriting.
From Wikipedia’s article on Nomura Holdings, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7