INTERVIEW-Japan's Daiwa seeks partner to expand in Asia

TOKYO, Nov 2 - Daiwa Securities, Japan's second-largest brokerage, is seeking an acquisition or a tie-up to help it grab more investment banking deals in Asia, its chief executive said on Monday.

In Japan, Daiwa withdrew last month from its decade-long investment banking joint venture with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), forcing the brokerage to go it alone in winning deals amid growing competition.

"We've haven't done much in Asia, despite all our talk about expanding, but this time it's for real," CEO Shigeharu Suzuki told Reuters in an interview. "We need a large presence in Asia to survive as a global firm."

Its former partner SMFG, Japan's third-largest bank, expanded its brokerage business by buying Nikko Cordial Securities from Citigroup.

Analysts have said the breakdown of the partnership could mean lower deal flows for Daiwa's wholesale business, which just logged a 854 million yen quarterly net loss. But Suzuki said that those losses at its wholesale business would not expand further.

"We are now free from ties to a particular banking group, and that allows us to be lighter and quicker at making decisions," he said. "We may lose some deals, but we gain some as well."