Nomura is to cut further its presence in Europe and shift its focus to Asia as Japan's leading investment bank struggles to return its overseas operations to profitability.

Koji Nagai, who took over as chief executive last month, presented his management strategy for the first time on Thursday, vowing to reshape the bank into an organisation that can generate stable annual pre-tax profits of Y125bn ($1.6bn) in its wholesale business by March 2016.

"We are placing priority on a strategy to compete," he said.

To that end, Nomura is implementing a $1bn cost-cutting exercise, which will focus on shrinking the European equities business. The fresh cuts come in the wake of $1.2bn of costs it has eliminated since November, mainly in the European business.

Nomura's costs had ballooned after it acquired the Asian and European arms of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and its high cost structure led the wholesale division to post nine consecutive quarters of losses.

The bulk of the latest cuts -- 45 per cent -- will also come in Europe, with the Americas comprising 21 per cent, Asia excluding Japan 18 per cent and Japan 16 per cent.