Nomura to shut branch in China as it scales back wealth business

[TOKYO] Nomura Holdings is closing one of its four branches in China, as the Japanese securities firm scales back its wealth management business in the mainland after years of losses.

The company’s brokerage subsidiary plans to shut its branch in Zhejiang province by the end of the year, sources familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. A Tokyo-based spokesperson declined to comment.

The closure comes four years after Nomura announced the opening of the office in late 2021, when it was pushing to expand in areas that are home to rich Chinese. Japan’s biggest brokerage had targeted wealth management as a key area for growth in China, but the business has struggled under President Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” drive, a slowing economy and stiff competition.

Shanghai-based Nomura Orient International Securities has posted losses every year since it was formed in 2019. The venture’s loss narrowed 30 per cent to 128.7 million yuan (S$23 million) in the year ended Dec 31, making the second straight year of improvement.

Nomura has been curtailing its original focus on China wealth to prioritise an expansion in brokerage and asset management, Bloomberg reported in April.

Global banks have also been tempering their ambitions in China’s US$69 trillion financial services industry, five years after its opening ushered in a wave of investment by firms including JPMorgan Chase and UBS Group. Mounting trade tensions under US President Donald Trump are adding to the uncertainty.

Zhejiang is a wealthy province on China’s east coast that’s home to e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding as well as Yiwu city, a manufacturing hub that exports globally. Nomura’s majority-owned venture with Oriental International (Holding) and Shanghai Huangpu Investment Holding (Group) has branches in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen as well. BLOOMBERG