Nomura Holdings Chief Executive Officer Kentaro Okuda slashed earnings targets across the firm’s main businesses and is planning a review to revive profitability after net income fell for three straight years under his leadership.
Japan’s biggest brokerage pointed to a changing macro environment and interest-rate hikes as it lowered its combined pretax profit goal for the retail, wholesale and investment management divisions to ¥288 billion ($2.1 billion) for the year ending March 2025, from the previous target of as much as ¥390 billion, according to a presentation at the firm’s investor day on Thursday.
Okuda said the firm is planning to conduct a major review into its ways of doing business for "all of the front, middle and back offices” with the goal to achieve return of equity of 8% to 10% over the medium term, after the key measure of profitability slipped to 3.1% in the year ended March.