Japan-based investment bank Nomura has promoted two of its senior executives, both former Lehman Brothers bankers, to lead its equities business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Abdelkerim Karim and Sam Ruiz have been named co-heads of equities, EMEA, and will both take up their new roles from 1 April. The two men replace Rachid Bouzouba, who has been promoted to co-head of global equities alongside Naoki Matsuba amid a wide-ranging management reshuffle announced on 8 March.
Karim joined Nomura from Lehman Brothers in October 2008 as head of equity structured products. His last role at Lehman Brothers was as head of structured products in Europe.
Ruiz, who also joined Nomura in October 2008, is currently head of equities trading, EMEA. He was at Lehman Brothers from 1989 until its collapse, holding a number of positions including head of trading for Europe and co-head of execution services.
Nomura has not yet named replacements for Karim and Ruiz in their current roles.
“Both Abdelkerim and Sam have made outstanding contributions to the growth of the platform and revenues generated in equities,” said Bouzouba in a statement. “Today’s appointments are in recognition of their exceptional performance. We are confident that the equities franchise in EMEA will strengthen under their leadership.”
Nomura purchased the European and Asian operations of Lehman Brothers shortly after its collapse in September 2008. It has since become the number-one customer on the London Stock Exchange in terms of market share and has launched NX, the internal dark pool inherited from Lehman Brothers, as a multilateral trading facility in Europe. According to figures from data vendor Thomson Reuters, NX traded €1.52 billion in February.