TOKYO, April 4 (Reuters) - Nomura Holdings ( NMR ) aims

to expand its U.S. credit portfolio to $50 billion within 10

years and may seek small acquisitions to beef up its private

credit business, the top Japanese investment bank's U.S. asset

management chief said.

The goal is line with Nomura's strategy to increase

investments in private markets and diversify sources of revenue

to cushion the impact from wild fluctuations in the performance

of its global trading business.

"We want to definitely grow this (U.S. credit) business

collectively, quite substantially over the next five to 10 years

to $50 billion or more" in assets under management, Robert

Stark, who heads the U.S. asset management business, told

Reuters in an interview.

Nomura Capital Management (NCM) currently has $35 billion

assets under management, the vast majority of which is a

high-yield bond portfolio, according to Stark, who is also the

chief executive of the 80-member unit.

Nomura last month created NCM to combine its 33-year-old

high-yield bond business and a private credit business that it

launched just two years ago.

On the private credit side, the entire build-up had been

purely organic as it hired 25 people over the last two years,

but it's "more likely that we do more significant moves in terms

of team lift-outs or small acquisitions," Stark said. "It's time

for the next phase."

He said the unit's focus will remain the same, on more niche

areas such as asset-based lending and real estate lending

instead of large sponsor-backed deals.

London-based data firm Preqin forecast the global market for

private credit, which largely involves leveraged loans made to

indebted companies, to grow to $2.7 trillion by 2028 from nearly

$1.5 trillion in 2022.

Non-bank lenders, or shadow banks, have expanded their

lending in recent years as they faced fewer regulatory hurdles

than traditional lenders. Wall Street banks have also joined

forces with private equity giants and asset managers to expand

their private credit businesses.