By Anton Bridge TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s largest brokerage and investment bank, Nomura Holdings, reported a 6% drop in second-quarter net profit on Tuesday, hurt by a higher effective tax bill despite a healthy showing across all of its divisions. The results show how Nomura’s wholesale division – which houses its investment banking and trading businesses […]
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Nomura quarterly profit dips on higher taxes, despite record equity trading
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By Anton Bridge
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s largest brokerage and investment bank, Nomura Holdings, reported a 6% drop in second-quarter net profit on Tuesday, hurt by a higher effective tax bill despite a healthy showing across all of its divisions.
The results show how Nomura’s wholesale division – which houses its investment banking and trading businesses – is solidifying its role as a consistent profit driver after years of earnings volatility driven by market swings.
The earnings report also reflects buoyant global markets, as Nomura booked record equity trading revenue and cashed in on the uptick in dealmaking and equity raising as the fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements in April settled.
“Looking at the rest of the year to come and the situation in our main divisions, we’re off to a good start,” chief financial officer Hiroyuki Moriuchi said at a press briefing in Tokyo.
Nomura reported net profit of 92.1 billion yen ($610.8 million) for the July-September quarter, down 6% from a year earlier, even as its pre-tax profit grew 3%.
Investment banking advisory fees increased as dealmaking gained momentum following a “wait and see” period triggered by Trump’s tariff moves, which had weighed on corporate activity in the prior quarter.
Nomura also retained its top spot in the Japan-related M&A league table for 2025, advising on major deals including private equity fund Blackstone’s $3.5 billion take-private of engineering staffing firm TechnoPro Holdings.
While the global markets arm delivered record equity-related revenue, wealth management clients largely stayed on the sidelines as Japanese equity indexes hit record highs, leading to a 9% quarter-on-quarter decline in equity sales.
Nevertheless, pre-tax profits in the wealth management division rose 3% year-on-year, reinforcing Nomura’s dominant position among securities firms catering to high-net-worth clients in Japan – a business that continues to swell its pool of stable, recurring revenue.
The firm has also been growing its investment management business, which reached record net assets under management of 101.2 trillion yen at the end of September.
In April, Nomura acquired the U.S. and European public asset management businesses of Macquarie Group for $1.8 billion, its largest ever deal.
($1 = 150.7800 yen)
(Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Jacqueline Wong and Mrigank Dhaniwala)