Nomura Holdings Inc. plans to hire about 20 bankers in the U.S. to help regain lost share of the world¡¯s largest mergers and acquisitions advisory market.

The nation¡¯s biggest brokerage will seek people to work on leveraged lending and building relationships with private-equity firms such as KKR & Co., global investment banking head Kentaro Okuda said in a recent interview in Tokyo. Others will be recruited to cover the hotel, real estate, casino and gaming industries, he said.

The hiring plans mark a shift by Chief Executive Officer Koji Nagai toward resurrecting Nomura¡¯s global ambitions after spending the first 16 months of his tenure fixing his predecessor¡¯s missteps, such as ballooning overseas costs and an insider-trading scandal that roiled domestic operations. The brokerage is expanding in leveraged finance as stricter global capital requirements make the business more expensive for banks.