Nomura Australia Ltd., an Australian unit of Nomura Holdings Inc., has reportedly hired about 10 equity research analysts and sales traders from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. According to the reports, 8 analysts and 2 sales traders moved from RBS to Nomura on Tuesday. Nomura Holdings Inc., a Japanese group, took this step to strengthen its market presence in the Australian market.

According to the persons familiar with the matter, David Cooke, David Stanton, Simon Thackeray and Richard Johnson are the four senior analysts who resigned today. These analysts were of great importance for RBS.

David Cooke and David Stanton were working as food and beverages analyst and healthcare analyst respectively. While Simon Thackeray and Richard Johnson were part of the materials and industrials analysis team. Among these senior analysts, four junior analysts and two research sales traders are resigned from RBS to join Nomura.

RBS confirmed the resignation of these people today. Jill Valentine, spokeswoman of RBS, said that now there are 37 people remaining in the equity research team of RBS.

However, Nomura will find its research team stronger with these recent additions of the talented manpower. Earlier, Nomura has hired Grant Chamberlain, a former Deutsche Bank employee. Chamberlain will head Nomura's mergers and acquisitions team in Australia.