Japan's Nomura bolsters its U.S. investment banking team

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc has beefed up its U.S. investment banking team as the brokerage and investment banking group looks to grab a bigger share of fees in the world's biggest economy.

Nomura said in a statement late on Monday it had hired 15 senior bankers in the United States over the past 12 months in areas including mergers and acquisitions, leveraged finance, and equity capital markets.

The brokerage has made a U.S. expansion of its investment banking arm one of its priorities as it strives to earn more stable income from advisory services. Its hires include bankers covering the healthcare, technology, and financial services sectors, it said.

The expansion comes after a major restructuring in 2016 - including a big shrinking of its operations in Europe - following its acquisition of Lehman Brothers' Asian and European businesses in 2008. That led to six consecutive years of losses for its international operations.

Reuters reported last year that Nomura planned to add a dozen senior- and mid-level investment bankers over the next 12 to 18 months in the United States as it anticipated more deals by Japanese firms in the area or by U.S. companies overseas.

Japanese companies, flush with cash and facing limited growth at home, have sought to acquire firms in the United States. Nomura's peers are also looking to expand to take advantage of the trend.

Last year, No.2 brokerage Daiwa Securities Group Inc bought two U.S. boutique merger-and-acquisitions advisory firms to strengthen its M&A operations.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc's brokerage unit, Japan's third-largest, is ready to poach bankers to expand its U.S. investment banking arm and could even buy small firms, its chief executive said last month.

(Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Paul Tait)