Nomura Holdings Inc. and Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Japan's largest brokerages, plan to cut costs as the faltering local economy, Europe's sovereign credit crisis and U.S. debt impasse weigh on earnings.
Nomura plans to trim costs annually at its wholesale unit by about $400 million, the Tokyo-based company said Friday after reporting that a one-time gain boosted first-quarter profit more than sevenfold. Daiwa, whose loss for the three months that ended June 30 widened from a year earlier, said it plans to merge two units and reassign staff to curb expenses.
The securities firms' overseas units posted their biggest pretax loss in at least five quarters, driven by higher salaries abroad as they seek to compete with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. Nomura, which bought some Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. units in 2008, plans to reallocate staff or trim jobs in its wholesale business.