Japanese financial firm Nomura Holdings is exiting its local stock brokerage joint venture arrangement with listed bank BDO Unibank Inc as the Philippines is expected to experience its worst economic recession since the financial crisis.
BDO is buying out Nomura’s entire holdings in BDO Nomura Securities Inc, according to a Philippine Stock Exchange disclosure. BDO currently owns 51 percent of BDO Nomura, with Nomura, through Nomura Asia Investment (Singapore), holding the remaining 49 percent.
The original joint venture arrangement was inked in January 2016, with BDO Nomura commencing operations in October 2016.
BDO said the transaction will enable it to consolidate its securities brokerage business into BDO Securities Corp., which is being reorganized into a full-service brokerage firm with an expanded product offering to include non-equity securities.
The transaction is subject to further discussion and final agreements, in addition to any required corporate and regulatory approvals.
BDO is a full-service universal bank that provides corporate and retail banking services, including traditional loan and deposit products, as well as treasury, trust banking, investment banking, private banking, rural banking, cash management, leasing and finance, remittance, insurance, retail cash cards, and credit card services.
The bank has one of the largest distribution networks, with more than 1,400 operating branches and over 4,400 ATMs nationwide. It also has full-service branches in Hong Kong and Singapore as well as 15 overseas remittance and representative offices in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. – BusinessNewsAsia.com