Tokyo  - Japan's largest brokerage Nomura is gearing up to acquire the European business operations of bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers, the Kyodo news agency reported Tuesday.

Citing informed sources, Kyodo said Nomura Holdings was in the final stages of negotiations for the acquisition.

The report comes a day after Nomura announced it was acquiring Lehman Brothers' operations in Asia, with Kyodo putting the value of the deal at over 20 billion yen (190 million dollars).

Nomura would stand to expand substantially its presence in Europe with a takeover of Lehman's business in Europe.

Advisors of the PricewaterhouseCoopers business consultants had confirmed Monday in London that talks were going on with "one party" which wanted to take over a "larger team" in an apparent reference to the Nomura-Lehman linkup. (dpa)