TOKYO: Nomura Holdings, Japan’s biggest brokerage, plans “some redundancies” in its Australian equities business in line with its global strategy, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

The changes are part of the Tokyo-based firm’s global alignment of its equities and Instinet businesses, according to the memo sent by Australia CEO Hiroyuki Nishikawa. Rob Stewart, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for the company, confirmed the contents of the document.

Nomura said last year that it’s reorganising its equities division, with execution services outside of Japan to be wrapped into Instinet, the brokerage it acquired in 2006. In Australia, the bank continues to cover more than 60 per cent of the stock market by market capitalisation, according to the memo.

The changes are understood to mean local equities head Andrew Norman and capital markets chief Mark Bartels are stepping down, the Australian Financial Review reported.

Nomura named Jon Linton as head of global markets for Australia, including equities, according to the memo. Linton was previously head of macro products for the country.

(Bloomberg)