The second quarter earnings for Nomura Holdings (NYSE:NMR) Inc., the biggest brokerage and investment bank in Japan, were small as concerns about a worldwide recession affected both its asset management and investment banking operations.
The profit from July through September was 16.8 billion yen ($113.9 million).
Related:Â Nomura says that many big economies will go into recession next year.
Although that was far better than the 3.2 billion yen profit for the same quarter a year prior, when it took a 39 billion yen charge relating to U.S. mortgage-backed loans made more than ten years ago, the company’s performance was otherwise underwhelming.
Takumi Kitamura, the chief financial officer, stated at a briefing that “the most recent results are not at satisfactory levels.”
Despite Nomura’s efforts to alter its profit structure to make it less susceptible to market fluctuations, headwinds like dramatically rising global interest rates and the conflict in Ukraine have caused stock market downturns that have hurt its core businesses.
Pretax earnings at Nomura’s investment management division fell 63%, and retail revenue fell 68% from the previous year.
Additionally, the poor demand for bond and equity underwriting hurt investment banking.
Because of increasing volume and market volatility, fixed-income trading has proven to be a bright spot for investors.
Related: Nomura has an ambitious goal to almost treble revenue in three years
Nomura’s wholesale division, which includes its trading and investment banking businesses, reported pretax profits of 20.2 billion yen, as opposed to a profit of 25 billion yen in the prior year.
($1 = 147.4800 yen)
