Nomura eyes top 10 spot for French M&A deals

 

PARIS, June 8 (Reuters) - Japanese bank Nomura (8604.T), which acquired some of the main businesses of failed Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers last year, is targeting a top 10 spot in the league tables for working on French mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Nomura France Joint President Jerome Calvet told reporters at a news briefing on Monday that "in the long run," Nomura would aim for a top five position in French league tables for M&A.

Last year, Nomura bought the European, Middle Eastern and Asian units of Lehman Brothers following Lehman's collapse. The Japanese bank currently has around 100 staff in Paris.

According to data compiled by Thomson Reuters, BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) held the number one spot in French M&A table during the first quarter.

Lazard (LAZ.N) was second, Rothschild [ROT.UL] was third, Citigroup (C.N) was fourth and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) fifth. Nomura was ranked 12th in the Thomson Reuters table.

French transactions which Nomura has worked on so far this year include Air France KLM's (AIRF.PA) acquisition of a 25 percent stake in Alitalia and the Ricard family's purchase of a 3.7 percent stake in Pernod Ricard (PERP.PA) from Japan's Kirin Holdings (2503.T).

In April, Nomura reported a $2.2 billion quarterly loss, which mainly reflected the costs of integrating the Lehman operations.


==> Nomura has enough money to do this? I didn't know it. As I know, Nomura is recently looking for new investors who will invest in Nomura holdings. What does that mean?