Layoffs Watch '12: Nomura

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Nomura is said to be encouraging people in equities to consider their options elsewhere but it's okay because this is all part of a plan.

From Charlie Gasparino:

“...Nomura is telling executives, particularly in the equity business, to look for other jobs. Nomura is signaling to these executives that they are winding down their equities business. The job cuts focus on equity, so obviously that means trading, sales, banking and research. We know that Nomura Equity executives are flooding the market with resumes."

We're told that specifically, it's cash equity traders and sale-traders who are not long for this world. According to Nomura, this is one step in a multi-step evolutionary process the firm is embarking on, as it mutates from monkey to man.

Layoffs Underway At Nomura [FBN]
Nomura Announces Evolution [Nomura]

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The company is still in the firing phase of the rebuilding process. Nomura Holdings cut a team of London proprietary traders focused on stocks as Japan’s largest brokerage scales back in Europe, said two people with knowledge of the matter. The group of about five traders was part of Nomura’s Angel Lane Principal Strategies, a unit that makes speculative wagers on markets with capital provided by the Tokyo-based bank, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the job cuts haven’t been announced. The team departing this week was led by Anthony Medina, a volatility trader who used options to bet on fluctuations in the prices of stocks, the people said. The departures are part of Nomura’s plan to reduce costs by $1 billion, with almost half the savings coming from Europe. The revamp in strategy follows a four-year struggle to build a business overseas following the purchase of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s European and Asian units in 2008. Nomura Said To Cut Team Of Proprietary Traders Focused On Stocks [Bloomberg]

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London employees are not the only ones being sat down for uncomfortable conversations. "FYI: Heavy cuts at Nomura across banking and equities today in the US as well."

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Employees are said to be expecting something resembling a massacre tomorrow around 10 or so, depending on when people roll into the office. From the front lines: "Nomura London cuts happening tomorrow starting 10ish. It's going to be a bloodbath."

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The firm is said to be giving a whole bunch of employees the heave-ho.

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Things could be better in Europe. Big investment banks in Europe, including Nomura, Credit Suisse and UBS, are stepping up plans to cut jobs as they seek to adapt to a drastic slowdown in revenues and tighter regulation. Bank executives, headhunters and analysts say that the cuts are shaping up as the deepest since the start of the financial crisis after a disappointing summer dashed hopes of a business revival. One senior headhunter said many large investment banks will have “at least 20 per cent” fewer staff in capital markets and M&A advisory business in Europe by the end of the year compared with late 2011. “It [the market] has never been as bad as this. Bankers have long lost confidence in their banks but now they are also losing their self-confidence, their mojo,” a senior advisory banker said. Among the banks that will reduce their investment banking workforce is Japan’s Nomura, where London-based bankers say that they expect several hundred jobs to be removed in Europe alone as part of a $1bn cost-cutting effort. Switzerland’s largest bank UBS, which cut staff levels earlier than rivals by announcing 2,000 job cuts in the investment bank after a $2.3bn unauthorised trading loss last year, is preparing for intensified cuts as it is seeking to streamline further the unit, several people familiar with the situation said. At Credit Suisse, insiders estimate that the additional SFr1bn ($1bn) in groupwide cuts that were announced in July will translate into up to 1,000 jobs being lost, most of which would be in the investment bank. Analysts expect also Deutsche Bank and Barclays to reduce their headcount further this year. Deutsche said two months ago it would reduce staff levels by 1,900. Investment Banks Eye Europe Job Cuts [FT]

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Cuts are said to have gone down across the pond earlier today.

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The cuts may start this week.

Layoffs Watch '12: Nomura