Nomura Holdings Inc. pulled ahead of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to hold on to the top spot for mergers and acquisitions advisory work in Japan in 2011 after the two competed neck and neck during the last two months.
Nomura, the nation's largest brokerage, this year advised companies on 134 transactions worth $65.4 billion, including Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.'s $13.7 billion acquisition of Swiss drugmaker Nycomed. Goldman Sachs came in second after handling 24 deals worth $62.3 billion.
Retaining the No. 1 position will require Nomura to harness Japanese demand for overseas assets. Bolstered by the strong yen, Japan's companies spent about $88.3 billion on overseas acquisitions in 2011, the most in any of the 12 years for which Bloomberg data is available. Nomura ranked fourth among advisers of such deals, behind Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG, the data show.