backed securities market TOKYO, JULY 25, SPA -- Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest securities business group, said Wednesday its net profit for the April-June quarter more than tripled from the same period a year ago, REPORTED AP. The brokerage also said it may exit the residential mortgage-backed securities market in the U.S. after it lost 31.2 billion yen (US$258 million; ¤186.5 million) in the business during the quarter due to growing problems among subprime lenders. «We are considering the shutdown of RMBS business as part of our review of U.S. business,» said Fujiwara Michiyori, corporate communications vice president. «But we don't have any deadline yet,» he said. The business buys mortgages from lenders, bundles them together and then sells them as high-yielding bonds to investors. «We will focus on our core areas of Japanese and Asian stocks, structured products and asset management. We think the business is pretty attractive, even in the U.S.,» he said. Nomura's group net profit grew to 76.7 billion yen (US$635 million; ¤459 million) from 20.1 billion yen in the same quarter last year, the company said in a release. Net revenue grew 85 percent in the quarter to 380.7 billion yen (US$3.15 billion; ¤2.28 billion) compared to 205.9 billion yen a year ago. Losses from its exposure to loans and the mortgage-backed securities market were offset by gain strong performance in its business segments. «All five business divisions performed well during the first quarter,» said Nobuyuki Koga, Nomura president and chief executive in a statement. Investment fees more than doubled from a year ago to 29.9 billion yen (US$248 million; ¤179 million). The net gain on trading in the quarter was 99.7 billion yen (US$826 million; ¤597 million), an increase of almost 80 percent. Gains on private equity investments more than quadrupled in the quarter to 45.8 billion yen (US$379 million; ¤274 million). As of June 30, Nomura had RMBS positions worth 266.0 billion yen (US$2.2 billion; ¤1.6 billion) down from 657.8 billion yen (US$5.46 billion; ¤3.95 billion) as of March 31. Nomura has also cut its positions in U.S. subprime loans in the quarter to 71.1 billion yen (US$589 million; ¤426 million) as of June 30, down from 210.2 billion yen (US$1.74 billion; ¤1.26 billion), the company said. Nomura had losses of 41.4 billion yen in its U.S. mortgage-backed securities business the previous quarter.
