TOKYO (Reuters) -Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank, reported on Tuesday a 38.7% drop in quarterly net profit as the pandemic-era trading boom waned.
October-December profit came in at 60.3 billion yen ($524.70 million), down from 98.4 billion yen a year earlier.
The dismal third quarter earnings reflected a slowdown in the global markets trading business, which benefited a year ago from high trading activity driven by a massive injection of cash into capital markets by the Federal Reserve.
But Nomura’s investment banking unit continued to thrive, partly offsetting the trading revenue drop, thanks to global waves of merger and acquisitions (M&As).
Nomura Greentech, a recently acquired boutique M&A advisor in clean tech, helped boost Nomura’s presence in the U.S. market.
Pre-tax income for Nomura’s wholesale division, which houses its trading and investment banking businesses, dropped 47% to 40.8 billion yen for the same period a year earlier.
($1 = 114.9800 yen)
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Lincoln Feast.)
