Nomura Holdings Inc. (Nomura) has announced an agreement to acquire NikkoCiti Trust and Banking Corporation through its wholly-owned subsidiary Nomura Trust and Banking Corporation for ¥19 bn. In our opinion, the company will benefit from this deal over the long term, as it will significantly increase the company’s trust asset market share in Japan. Consequently, we upgrade the common stock from a SELL to a HOLD. We will reassess our common stock rating in our next update report. We continue to expect to revert to a 6-24 investment horizon in our next update report as we now anticipate a significant negative currency impact on the ADR over the medium-to-long term. Therefore, we reiterate our SELL rating. We will reassess our ADR (1 ADR = 1 common share) rating in our next update report.

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