Nomura Holding to Exit Mortgage Business

Nomura Holding America Inc. said it’s getting out of the real estate finance business, ending its reign as the top U.S. commercial mortgage lender. The primary U.S. unit of Nomura Securities Co. of Tokyo is shutting down the lending business of its real estate finance arm, Capital Co. of America, and moving the division from San Francisco to New York. The decision to exit the lending business comes less than two months after Nomura said its U.S. businesses lost $1.16 billion in the half-year period through September. About 70% of those losses came from the Capital America unit, a Nomura official said at the time. Capital America is deciding how best to sell its $10 billion in commercial mortgage assets. A company official said the firm will likely sell more than $3.5 billion worth of loans packaged as commercial mortgage-backed securities during the first six months of next year. Capital America’s vice chairman and founder, Ethan Penner, quit in July, and his replacements, Boyd Fellows and Brian Pilcher, resigned in November.