Nomura Holdings, the largest securities firm in Japan, laid off 20 Hong Kong staff in its investment banking division on Wednesday, sources at the bank said.
The brokerage let a further 30 investment banking staff go from offices around Asia excluding Japan. The lay-offs represent 2 per cent of the company's 2,500 employees in Asia excluding Japan.
'It's a rationalising process going on in the wake of the Lehman Brothers acquisition and the global economy,' said one source.
The investment bank saw costs soar 73 per cent in the final quarter last year after acquiring the Asia-Pacific and European arms of bankrupt United States investment bank Lehman in September. The acquisition was aimed at expanding the bank's business operations outside its main base of Japan.
The bank posted a record US$3.46 billion loss in the final quarter of last year, the fourth consecutive quarter of losses. It bolstered its balance sheet in February after raising US$3.2 billion from its first share sale in 20 years. The company's shares have fallen 20.16 per cent this year while the benchmark Nikkei-225 Index is down 1.18 per cent.
The bank also applied with Japan's Ministry of Finance this week to raise as much as US$4 billion from bond sales over the next two years.