Money managers investing in Japan say Nomura is the country’s best sell-side firm when it comes to getting access to public companies.
The bank once again placed first in Institutional Investor’s buy-side ranking of Japan’s Top Corporate Access Providers, narrowly beating out second-place Mizuho Securities. The ranking was determined based on votes from the 2018 All-Japan Research Team survey. The 520 investors at 287 firms who responded voted for the firms that provide the best corporate access based on several criteria.
These criteria include one-on-one meetings with executives, site visits and factory tours, investor conferences, non-deal roadshows, logistics to support corporate access, and ongoing feedback between corporates and investors.
[II Deep Dive: Nomura Voted Japan’s Top Corporate Access Provider]
Nomura has been in operation in Japan since 1925, when it was founded to trade bonds. Since then, the bank has swelled to become one of Asia’s largest banks.
According to Shinji Wakizaka, managing director and head of the client relations management department at Nomura, the firm has been working hard to keep up in an increasingly challenging corporate access environment.
“Corporate access services have become increasingly polarized,” Wakizaka said in an email.
On the one hand, there are "low-touch" services such as arranging one-on-one meetings after earning results are released, which many firms offer. That makes it hard for Nomura to differentiate its services from other providers, Wakizaka said.
“On the other hand, there are high-touch services such as top management meetings, ESG strategies, and external experts that are hard to enter,” Wakizaka continued.
According to Wakizaka, offering a combination of those one-on-one meetings and bigger-picture strategies is what sets Nomura apart from other firms.
Nomura plans to continue to charm investors and clients by offering a stronger set of information technology services in the coming years.
“By leveraging advancements in IT, we are able to provide various corporate access services not only to our domestic clients but also to overseas investors, particularly those in Asia, in real time,” Wakizaka said.
Participants in the 2018 All-Japan Executive Team Survey also ranked Japan’s Top Corporate Access Providers from the corporate point of view. On the corporate side, SMBC Nikko Securities topped the list, while Nomura placed second. Corporates also ranked Mizuho Securities third, J.P. Morgan fourth, and Daiwa Securities Group fifth.
