Nomura Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Kenichi Watanabe, planning a record $5.7 billion share sale, is taking steps to bolster investor confidence after watching the stock plunge 19 percent in the past four days.
Watanabe, 56, met with about 70 investors Tuesday at Nomura's Tokyo headquarters and told them that earnings for July and August were "not bad," said two people who attended the meeting, requesting anonymity because the briefing was closed to the media. He didn't give figures, they said. Nomura spokesman Tohru Namikawa declined to comment.
Watanabe wants to use the money to grow in the United States, Europe and Asia, stepping up an expansion drive that began with last year's purchase of parts of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Nomura, whose fiscal second quarter ended Wednesday, tumbled a record 16 percent on Sept. 25 after the sale was announced, wiping out $3.4 billion of market value.