The art of folding paper

24 April 2009 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

As US rivals get back in the black, the Japanese investment bank made its biggest ever annual loss. On top of asset writedowns and equity losses, it’s still paying the bill for Lehman Brothers. Such oneoffs are transitory, but Nomura faces a longerterm problem: Japaneseness.

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Nomura, the Japanese brokerage and investment bank, reported a net loss of Y709bn ($7.1bn) for the year ending March 31. In the fourth quarter, net revenues were Y99.2bn ($992m) while the quarterly net loss was Y217bn ($2.2bn).

Nomura wrote down real estate and private equity investments by almost Y59bn ($587m) in the quarter. A further Y60bn ($603m) came from costs arising from the acquisition of Lehman Brothers' European and Asian businesses in September 2008.

Brokerage commissions, a mainstay of Nomura's domestic business, fell almost a third, quarter on quarter. Japan's equity markets have seen sharp falls in trading, with individuals' trading values down 26% in the same period, according to Credit Suisse estimates.

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