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Daiwa Securities Is Said to Pick Head for Post-Brexit Unit

Daiwa Securities Is Said to Pick Head for Post-Brexit Unit

(Bloomberg) -- Daiwa Securities Group Inc. will name Manabu Takahashi to lead the securities firm’s business in the European Union after Brexit, people familiar with the matter said.

Japan’s second largest brokerage has selected Takahashi -- who currently heads its Geneva branch -- as the chief executive officer for its new Frankfurt operation, the people said, requesting anonymity because the decision isn’t yet public. The appointment depends on Daiwa receiving regulatory approval for the German unit, which is still pending, they added.

Takahashi’s new role will be announced later Friday, the people said.

Daiwa has drawn up plans to locate about 30 staff in Frankfurt, after selecting the German city last year as the location for its operations in the EU after Brexit. It is expected to notify 10 to 15 of its London employees that they will transfer to Frankfurt and hire a similar number in Germany, people familiar with the matter said last week.

Daiwa’s Tokyo-based spokesman Hiroki Aoyama declined to comment.

In Geneva, Takahashi is responsible for the securities firm’s relationships with Swiss institutional investors, according to a Daiwa website. He joined Daiwa in 2002 and has worked for the firm in New York.

Daiwa has about 450 employees in Europe, mostly in London. The brokerage said in June that it will form a local entity in Frankfurt, and it has since applied for a license. It will accommodate the staff in the building where its merger advisory unit is located.

Nomura, whose roughly 3,000 staff in Europe are mainly in the British capital, also picked Frankfurt last year as the headquarters for its EU operations after the U.K.’s departure. The brokerage is considering transferring more than 100 London employees to Frankfurt, and may lease two more floors in its office building there.

Daiwa’s shares fell 4 percent to 672.4 yen Friday in Tokyo, the lowest in five months.

To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Marcus Wright at mwright115@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues

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