Nomura Holdings

Nomura organizes its principal investments through its Wholesale division, which houses merchant banking, private credit, and a dedicated alternatives team that was restructured in June 2023 to sit closer to its global markets desk. This alignment gives the alternatives unit direct access to deal flow from the investment bank's corporate and sponsor relationships. The group invests balance-sheet capital alongside institutional co-investors and has been expanding its focus on GP-led secondaries and infrastructure equity.

Nomura purchased Lehman Brothers' equities and investment banking operations in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East in October 2008, immediately after Lehman's bankruptcy filing. The acquisition brought over roughly 8,000 former Lehman employees and established Nomura as a full-service investment bank outside Japan. The European equities and advisory platform still carries significant institutional memory and client relationships from that transaction, though the brand was fully absorbed under the Nomura name.

Yes. Nomura regularly deploys its balance sheet into private credit, real estate mezzanine, infrastructure equity, and sponsor-backed buyouts through its merchant banking division. It has been an anchor investor in its own alternative strategies—including the May 2024 sustainable infrastructure vehicle—before syndicating exposure to institutional limited partners.

Ultimate oversight rests with the Group CEO, Kentaro Okuda, with direct investment authority delegated to the heads of the Wholesale division and the merchant banking group. The June 2023 restructuring placed the alternatives team under the same reporting line as global markets, meaning senior traders and originators now participate in private-deal committees alongside dedicated alternatives professionals.

Nomura's Japanese retail franchise is a structural differentiator. It gathers deposits and fee-based assets from millions of individual clients, creating a stable funding base that supports the firm's balance-sheet-intensive global wholesale operations. This domestic liability side acts as a permanent-capital-like cushion that permits Nomura to hold private-market exposures longer than many Western bank-owned asset managers can.

Nomura co-invests selectively and often preferes to anchor or lead club-style transactions where it can exercise influence on terms. The firm participates in syndicated private credit deals alongside other Asian and European bank-owned funds, and it has been an active buyer in GP-led secondary transactions where it can negotiate pricing directly with the sponsor.

Nomura Holdings operates globally and its London and New York subsidiaries conduct alternatives investment under UK FCA and US SEC regulation respectively, which govern risk retention and capital adequacy. While the Japanese Financial Services Agency sets consolidated capital requirements, the firm's international alternatives expansion is largely executed through its overseas regulated entities, giving it regulatory flexibility comparable to its Western peers.