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Nomura has agreed to buy Macquarie’s US and European public asset management business as part of its strategy to take advantage of a generational shift in Japanese investment habits.
The $1.8bn all-cash deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, will entail Nomura buying a business with about $180bn in assets under management across equities, fixed income and multi-asset strategies.
The acquisition will expand Nomura’s existing investment management division to roughly $770bn, with more than 35 per cent being managed on behalf of clients outside Japan.
Kentaro Okuda, Nomura’s chief executive, has made it his mission, since taking over in 2020, to shift the group towards wealth and asset management.
“This acquisition will align with our 2030 global growth and diversification ambitions to invest in stable, high-margin businesses,” he said on Tuesday.
Nomura is trying to reduce its reliance on volatile revenue streams from trading and investment banking. The need to diversify was underlined after group took a $2.9bn hit from the collapse of Archegos in 2021.
This strategy is designed to pursue international growth and to capitalise on the opportunity Nomura expects will arise as the return of inflation to Japan pushes households to transfer wealth from cash and deposits into higher-yielding investments.
Japanese households hold about half of their total ¥2.2 quadrillion ($15.4tn) of financial assets as cash and deposits, according to the Bank of Japan.
For Macquarie, the sale represents the most significant step in the Sydney-based asset manager’s pivot towards private markets outside Australia.
It built its international asset management business after acquiring US company Delaware Investments in 2010 for $428mn, then one of its largest acquisitions, and has grown the Philadelphia-based business with further deals since. It bought Waddell & Reed for $1.7bn in 2021.
Okuda said the deal would add “significant scale in the US, strengthening our platform, and providing opportunities to build our public and private capabilities”.
Nomura’s earnings have started to improve under Okuda, including doubling from a year earlier in the three months to December. However, the bank and brokerage’s share price has been hammered in recent weeks.
It is down close to 25 per cent since its highest point this year, mirroring similar steep moves across Japanese financial groups in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Nomura is due to announce its full-year results this Friday.
