Nomura To Buy $1B Stake In US Money Manager American Century Investments: Report

Japan’s biggest brokerage Nomura Holdings is in talks to buy a 40 percent stake in U.S. money manager American Century Investments, a source told the Nikkei Asian Review on Monday. The deal, valued at about $1 billion, would be the firm’s largest since the 2008 financial crisis.

The purchase of the asset management firm would mark Nomura’s entry into the U.S. investment trust market, signaling acceleration in its global expansion, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.

A person with knowledge of the matter reportedly said that Nomura is eyeing Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s 41 percent stake in the Kansas City, Missouri-based money manager, founded in 1958. CIBC bought a 41 percent stake in American Century Investments from JPMorgan in early 2011 for $848 million in cash.

Nomura plans to sell Japanese and Asian shares to individual investors in the U.S. through American Century Investments' sales networks, Nikkei reported. According to a November report by Tokyo-based M&A adviser Recof, cited by Nikkei, overseas mergers and acquisitions by Japanese enterprises had topped 10 trillion yen ($80.4 billion) in 2015 — exceeding the sum total of such deals made in 2014 by more than 70 percent.

Nomura, however, issued a statement in response to media speculation, before the close of trading Monday. “Certain media reports today stated that Nomura is planning to invest in an asset management company in the United States. Nomura has not made any announcement in this regard,” the Tokyo-based company said. Nomura's shares closed down 1.52 percent in Tokyo.