Nomura seen losing over $7 billion in 2008-09

Japanese investment banking and brokerage firm Nomura Holdings Inc, which acquired Lehman Brother's Asia and India operations, is likely to register a record net loss of 700 billion yen ($7.1 billion) in the year ended 31 March, the Nikkei reported on Thursday.

The loss stems from evaluation lapses on commercial real estate, loans and shareholdings, as well as write-downs on inventories of securities for sale to investors, Nikkei said.

Burdened with high labour costs, Nomura had slashed its investment banking team in India by half. Nomura let go 13 of the 26-member India team, including top executives like Surojit Shome, Ashok Mittal and Prashant Purker, reports said.

Nomura, which already closed  its structured finance operations with sacking 8 people, is also cutting workforce in the BPO operations in Powai, in Mumbai, it acquired from Lehman.

It is planning to slash the 2,500-strong Lehman workforce by 25 per cent. While 400 people have been already laid off, another 110 people are in the firing line.

Nomura lost 342.9 billion yen in the third quarter ended 31 December 2008 as the cost of acquiring Lehman Brothers units added to the losses from the financial crisis weighed.