Asset Management

Overview

Asset Management is engaged in the investment trust business for retail investors and the investment advisory business for institutional investors.

Our investment trust business offers a wide range of products that enables us to respond to the diversified needs of our clients through a broad array of distribution channels, including Nomura Securities and other brokerage houses, commercial banks, Japan Post Bank, and post offices throughout Japan.

Through our investment advisory business, we provide advanced investment technologies and high-quality asset management services to a broad range of institutional investors, including domestic and overseas pension funds, government agencies and central banks, and financial institutions, including banks and insurance companies.

Business Environment

Given the low growth rate in their home market, Japanese retail investors need to invest in overseas assets and consider other options to efficiently grow their asset base. Nomura is well placed to support this shift from savings to investment by offering a broad range of products that respond accurately to their changing needs.

Institutional investors in Japan remain risk averse. Pension funds have been busy mitigating the effects of market movements, while financial institutions face tighter regulations and stricter financial valuation standards. As such, we believe that institutional investors will need to rebalance their portfolios in line with changing market conditions and the regulatory environment.

Internationally, we are seeing strong demand for asset management services for pension funds, central banks, and sovereign wealth funds. To tap this demand, it is essential to offer a comprehensive set of solutions that is tailored to the specific needs of each region.

The investment management market in the BRICs and other emerging markets will continue to expand as these economies grow. We believe that emerging markets will move away from being just investment targets and take on an increasingly central role in the global investment management business.

Looking Forward

Our strategic focus in the investment trust business in Japan is to raise the penetration rate among retail investors. To do so, we will continue to deliver a full lineup of products and services that reflect changes in the investment environment and meet demand for new investments. Our distribution channels will include online brokers and other securities firms, banks, Japan Post Bank, and branch offices of Japan Post.

In investment advisory, we will provide products tailored to our clients' specific needs. In Japan, we will deliver solutions that help investors improve their portfolios. Specific examples include actively managed funds that invest in traditional assets, absolute return and high alpha funds, and RAFI® products. In international markets, we will provide competitive actively managed products to pension funds and other institutional investors in the US and Europe and sovereign wealth funds in Asia and the Middle East. We also aim to win mandates for Islamic finance in Asia and the Middle East through Nomura Islamic Asset Management, our subsidiary in Malaysia.

We will enhance our asset management capabilities, with a key focus on Asia. We now have four offices across Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia managing equities. In March 2011 we established LIC Nomura Mutual Fund in India. And in July 2011 we set up a representative office in Shanghai to build up our local research capabilities. Our Tokyo and London offices are our hubs for managing fixed income products. We will increase collaboration between these hubs and Nomura Corporate Research and Asset Management, which has extensive experience managing high-yield bonds in the US, and Nomura Global Alpha, which specializes in the high alpha space.

Global Expansion of Asset Management Business