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Nomura Asset Manager Merging ‘¥1 Trillion’ Underperforming Fund

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(Bloomberg) -- A Nomura Asset Management equity investment trust that was once called the “¥1 trillion fund” due to its size is effectively being combined with one of the firm’s flagship products after years of weak performance.

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The asset manager submitted a filing on Friday seeking to have Nomura Japan Equity Strategy Fund share the investment policy of Nomura Japan Open, after consulting with its stakeholders.

The strategy fund was established in February 2020 and its net assets climbed to as high as 1.167 trillion yen ($7.8 billion) in May of that year as it profited from tech-sector bets amid the IT bubble.

But its performance has deteriorated since then, with its returns falling short of the Topix stock index in four of the past five years. The fund’s expense ratio, the cost for investors to put their money in the product, also exceeded the industry’s level, at 2.08% versus the median 1.65% in the sector. Its net assets have shrunk to around 5% of its peak, at ¥55.7 billion.

Japan’s policymakers are seeking to get households to shift more of their savings to investments to boost their retirement funds as the portion of the elderly in the population increases at one of the fastest paces in the world. That’s putting pressure on fund mangers in Japan to bolster returns and lower costs as individual investors look abroad for better deals.

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