Nomura Holdings Inc plans to hire dozens of private bankers in Hong Kong and Singapore in a bid to extend its wealth management push from Japan and China to the rest of Asia.
The Tokyo-based firm, which has already outlined aggressive plans for China, aims to grow the assets it manages from those two hubs by five times to US$50 billion by March 2026, said Yuji Hibino, a senior managing director in charge of the business for Asia excluding Japan.
He wants to almost double the number of relationship managers to 100 in three years, from 57 as of last month.
“Asia has bigger potential for future growth compared to Japan,” Hibino said in an interview in Singapore. “We would like to look for more opportunities.”
Japan’s biggest brokerage is chasing the growing ranks of rich Asians to boost its wealth operation, which has dodged the waves of job cuts undertaken to restore profitability at its overseas securities business.
Nomura started hiring for the Asia wealth business last year with 10 net additions, Hibino said.
“We also look at inorganic opportunities,” he said, while adding that the company is not currently in any talks about acquisitions.
Nomura, focused on serving clients worth more than US$20 million, currently manages about US$10 billion in Asia excluding Japan.
The 10 largest firms in Asia each oversee more than US$50 billion, according to data compiled by Asian Private Banker that excludes Chinese firms operating on the mainland.
Hibino’s responsibilities do not extend to Nomura’s new joint venture in China, where it has also started hiring experienced private bankers. It is among a handful of global firms to receive securities licenses as part of the country’s opening up of its financial sector.
Nomura expects to expand headcount at the Chinese venture from about 100 now to 500 by 2023, when it aims to start offering investment banking services.
It is restructuring its retail business at home to concentrate more on high net-worth individuals.
Outside of Japan, its Asia wealth operation is currently concentrated in Hong Kong and Singapore.
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