Investment Banking

Market Environment

Investment Banking continued to build momentum globally. The environment proved challenging for many of our clients and businesses, especially in equity capital markets, due to the lingering effects of the European sovereign debt crisis and the natural disaster in Japan. However, Solutions businesses, such as non-traditional financing, interest rate and FX risk hedging, expanded, benefiting from financial institutions, particularly in Europe, actively raising capital on the back of tighter regulation. This helped to diversify our revenue sources globally.

In Japan, equity issuance declined significantly compared to FY2010/11, but the number of cross-border M&A deals involving Japanese companies, seeking growth opportunities abroad, continued to increase. We also underwrote a number of debt issuances from domestic and foreign issuers in a relatively stable Japanese bond market. This enabled us to maintain our leading market share in each product.

In EMEA, we executed a number of capital raising transactions for European financial institutions and advised on several high-profile M&A deals. We executed innovative solutions for our clients' financing needs relating to M&A, as well as FX and interest rate risk hedging transactions.

In Asia ex-Japan, we successfully executed a number of ECM deals. We played an important role in a number of cross-border deals between Asia and other regions including Japan.

In the Americas, we executed several deals for financial institutions clients and solutions transactions, steadily increasing revenues in the region.

Looking Forward

We will drive profitable growth by focusing on areas where Nomura can win, with clients and on opportunities where we can truly differentiate. We are focused globally on key sectors such as Financial Institutions, Natural Resources/Power, Consumer/Retail and Sponsors, and value-added products including cross-border M&A and Solution services, while delivering results in Asia to enable our clients to access dynamic growth markets.

• In Japan, maintain dominance in traditional businesses and grow our Solutions business.
• In AEJ, focus on large fee pools, high-growth countries and on enhancing cross-border collaboration with other regions.
• In EMEA, focus on strengthening core geographic markets and key products including structured solutions.
• In the Americas, pursue a multi-year phased growth strategy.