Nomura Asset counting on Japanese market enthusiasm to expand global business

TOKYO, Oct 7 : The asset management arm of Nomura Holdings is capitalising on rising investor interest in Japanese assets to attract new customers and build out its global operations, its chief executive said.

Strong Japanese equity performance coupled with bond yields rising to levels attractive to global investors has focused asset allocators' attention on Japanese markets, raising hopes for an influx of capital.

"Global investors were underweight Japan over the 'lost 30 years'," Shoichi Ohkoshi, chief executive of Nomura Asset Management, said in an interview with Reuters, referring to the decades over which Japan's economy slumped into deflation.

"Now clearly interest is rising, those who were underweight are moving to neutral and we're aiming to push them further to overweight by promoting the attractiveness of Japanese stocks," Ohkoshi added.

Asset management is one part of Nomura's push to establish itself as a more global financial player and last year it acquired Macquarie's US and European public asset management businesses.

This has given it a much larger footprint and distribution network in markets where it is difficult to grow organically, Ohkoshi said.

He did not give any details on expected new asset inflows or number of customers. Nomura Asset manages about 156 trillion yen ($985.47 billion), making it Japan's top investment manager.

From an established base in Japanese and Asian equities, Nomura is hoping to build out its share of global equity asset management products.

"There aren't many Japanese asset management companies that truly manage global equities. After the Macquarie acquisition we are in a position to scale up significantly," Ohkoshi said.

Rising bond yields in Japan are also an opportunity for the firm to raise its profile among global investors.

"Yields are still low compared to other countries but sovereign bonds are finally becoming investible assets," Ohkoshi said.

Growing demand for credit among Japanese firms that historically relied on bank lending is another opportunity to sell fixed income products to global investors.

"Corporate funding demand is expanding beyond what banks alone can provide so we're actively developing corporate credit products," Ohkoshi said.