Nomuras goal of building a worldwide mergers and acquisitions franchise is one many of its London-based bankers should be familiar with.

Five years ago, a series of dealmakers quit Morgan Stanley to join Lehman Brothers and help build its advisory base in Europe as part of a drive to expand and broaden its business outside the US.

Many of those same bankers are now being asked to transform Nomuras M&A business in Europe and the US at a time when deal mandates are scarce.

In Europe, the bank has been recruiting bankers for sectors such as oil and gas and financial institutions, while in the US, plans are under way to hire across all 11 main industry groups.

So far, these efforts have not yet been reflected in the all-important advisory league tables, where Nomura ranks 18th in the year to date, according to data from Dealogic.

That position compares to the position just before Lehman collapsed in September 2008, when the bank ranked ninth in European M&A, representing a 9.7 per cent share of the European deal market.

However, a closer look at the revenue rankings where Nomura ranks 12th globally suggests the bank has so far managed to avoid the classic mistake of trying to buy market share solely through its balance sheet.

To help open the door to UK boardrooms, Nomura last year acquired Tricorn Partners, the London-based corporate finance advisory firm, and took on its two co-founders Guy Dawson and Justin Dowley.

The pair have already brought in a coveted mandate to advise the Red Knights group of investors on a potential bid for Manchester United.

They are also focused on boosting the banks roster of corporate broking clients key to success in the UK.

This is a peculiarly British concept of client hand-holding, in which broking serves as a channel through which to develop deeper relationships with clients, even though it does not bring in direct revenues for a bank. At the moment, Nomura is broker to eight companies, of which only four are in the FTSE 100: Tesco, the London Stock Exchange, Legal & General and Invensys.

Nomuras ambitions may not yet have overturned the traditional hierarchy of European and US M&A advisory work, which is still dominated by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

But it has started to shake up a complacent sub-sector of the industry, at a time when Jasjit Bhattal has taken on a senior role at the bank.