Nomura Cuts Traders in Pullback From European Credit

(Bloomberg) -- Nomura Holdings Inc. is pulling back from credit trading in London as the Japanese bank restructures after losing billions of dollars earlier this year on transactions with Archegos Capital Management LP. 

The lender’s London unit is retreating from the trading of investment-grade and emerging-market corporate bonds and loans, according to people familiar with the matter. A small group of Nomura credit traders have lost their jobs as a result including Tharsh Tharshan, Irfan Ladak and Olexij Chevtchik, the people said. 

Nomura executives are pushing through an overhaul in the wake of the Archegos debacle, which saw the lender lose $2.9 billion on transactions with Bill Hwang’s investment firm. The Tokyo-based bank also added to investor worries last week with a $341 million charge linked to litigation. Its shares have slid 7% so far this year while many European and U.S. rivals have surged by double-digits.  

Simon Danaher, a spokesman for Nomura in London, declined to comment. Tharshan declined to comment. Ladak and Chevtchik didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment. 

The move follows earlier plans by Nomura to cull its credit-trading business. The bank pulled back from dealing in distressed debts in London in 2018, for example, and then downsized flow credit in both Europe and the Americas in 2019, a presentation shows.

Nomura’s fixed-income trading division reported a 32% fall in revenue to 70.7 billion yen ($620 million) in the three months through September, outpacing the combined 13% decline posted by the five biggest Wall Street banks. The bank blamed the performance partly on a slowdown in European rates trading, a presentation shows. Tom Heenan, one of the most senior executives at that business in London, departed last week, Bloomberg reported.

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