* Very high possibility of profit this year, Ujiie says
* Will take on big U.S. brokers in targeted areas like energy
* U.S. expansion still a drag on profitability
By Tim Kelly
YOKOHAMA, Japan, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Nomura Holdings, Japan's biggest brokerage, has a very high chance of showing a net profit this financial year, its chairman said, despite a stock market slump that drove second-quarter net nearly to zero.
The company, unlike most Japanese firms, has given no full-year earnings outlook, although seven analysts gave an average net profit forecast of 41.3 billion yen ($500.6 million) for the year to next March, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"Compared with the first half, current activity is coming better," Nomura Chairman Junichi Ujiie told Reuters on the sidelines of the APEC CEO summit.
Ujiie added, however, that profitability was still under pressure as a result of expansion in the United States.
That pressure comes as Nomura and other brokerages at home and in the United States and Europe struggle to make money during a slump in stock markets, which has been particularly severe in Japan and has squeezed revenue from trading fees.
To counter that crimp on income Nomura is expanding in Asia, Europe and the United States following its purchase of a chunk of Lehman Brothers. It makes about two-fifths of its revenue from overseas operations.
In the United States, Nomura has so far chosen not to acquire a local firm to give its expansion a boost, opting instead for gradual growth by hiring individual bankers
He said Nomura planned to take on big U.S. investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in specific areas such as energy and natural resources.
Nomura, however, is not looking to compete with them over a broad range of businesses and has no plan to buy a business in the United States, he added.
In its July-September quarter the Japanese brokerage eked out a 1.05 billion yen net profit, far below the year-earlier result and short of the average estimate of 5.6 billion yen in a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of three analysts.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei share average was flat during the second quarter and has stagnated as investors who pulled back following the European debt crisis steered clear of Japanese equities. Nomura's wholesale, or trading, revenue during the quarter dipped 18 percent from a year earlier.
With its U.S. operations still a drag rather than a profit nub, those slim pickings raised a question mark over the company's outlook for the rest of the year.
Since Nomura released its second-quarter earnings on Oct. 29, its stock price has gained 9 percent, compared with a 5.7 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei 225, and closed at 457 yen on Friday. Since the start of the year its shares have fallen by one-third. ($1=82.50 Yen) (Editing by Edmund Klamann)