Nomura Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:NMR) Q4 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 26, 2024 5:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Takumi Kitamura - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Masao Muraki - SMBC Nikko Securities
Wataru Otsuka - SBI Securities
Kazuki Watanabe - Daiwa Securities
Koichi Niwa - Citi

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's Nomura Holdings Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Operating Results for Fiscal Year Ending March 2024 Conference Call. Please be reminded that today's conference call is being recorded at the request of the hosting company. Should you have any objections, you may disconnect at this point in time. During the presentation, all the telephone lines are placed for listen-only mode. The question-and-answer session will be held after the presentation.

Please note that this telephone conference contains certain forward-looking statements and other projected results, which involve known and unknown risks, delays, uncertainties and other factors not under the company's control, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the results, performance or other expectations implied by those projections. Such factors include economic and market conditions, political events and investor sentiment, liquidity of secondary market level and the volatility of interest rates, currency exchange rates, security valuations, competitive conditions and size, number and timing of transactions.

With that, we would like to begin the conference. Mr. Takumi Kitamura, Chief Financial Officer, please go ahead.

Takumi Kitamura

Good evening. This is Takumi Kitamura, CFO of Nomura Holdings. I will now give you an overview of our financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year of the fiscal year ended March '24. Please turn to Page 2. First, our full-year results. As you can see on the bottom left, group net revenue increased 17% year-on-year, ¥1,562 billion. Pretax income grew 83% to ¥273.9 billion. EPS was ¥52.69 and ROE for the year was 5.1%. The first half of the year kicked off with the failure of regional banks in the U.S. and issues around the U.S. debt ceiling.

This, coupled with monetary tightening of central banks around the world and spiking oil prices led to continued uncertainty in fixed income markets. Equities markets were generally solid, but concerns around the higher rates for longer resulted in a correction centered on hi-tech stocks towards the end of the half year period.

As we moved into the second half of the year, inflation in the U.S. eased and we started to see an exit from the sharp rate hikes in the past two years. In 2024, the Fed hinted at three rate cuts leading to robust trading among market participants. In spite of some market jitters since mid-March, the business environment has generally been favorable. Interest in the Japanese market surged over the past year due to deflation ending, speculation of a shift on BOJ policy and structural reforms to boost profitability of Japanese companies. The Nikkei hit a record high and introduction of the new NISA scheme in 2024 looks to have finally prompted a full-fledged shift from savings to asset building.