By Daisy Ku

LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - Japan's Nomura (8604.T) won its first rights issue mandate in Europe this year, underwriting a 420 million Swiss franc ($390 million) deal for Swiss flavours and fragrance maker Givaudan (GIVN.VX).

Photo courtesy of Givaudan

Nomura is co-underwriting the lucrative Givaudan deal with Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX), fifth in the Thomson Reuters Global Equity Capital Markets (ECM) league table, accounting for a 7 percent market share.

Nomura ranks 10th, with 1.9 percent of the market.

Looking to become a global player, the Tokyo-based investment bank acquired the European, Middle Eastern and Asia (EMEA) units of Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ.PK) last September, when the Wall Street bank went bankrupt.

Givaudan said the total cost of the share sale was 22 million francs, including fees. Underwriting fees were between 3 percent and 3.5 percent, a banker close to the deal said. That compares to 2.75 percent for recent jumbo rights issues from HSBC (HSBA.L) and Rio Tinto (RIO.L).

In Europe, Nomura only stood 47th in the first five months of the year. Yet, assuming Nomura had acquired the Lehman operations in 2007, it would have ranked 11th in Europe.

In M&A, the bank lost out on significant fees when Rio Tinto Group (RIO.AX) rejected a $19.5 billion tie-up with state-owned Chinalco, opting for a capital hike to reduce debt instead. Nomura had been one of Chinalco's advisers.

Previously, it had been working on rights issues in Europe as a senior co-lead or co-lead though not as an underwriter, meaning it got significantly lower fees.

It was one of the senior co-lead managers for HSBC's (HSBA.L)(0005.HK) $19 billion rights issue and the 8 billion euro ($11.23 billion) rights issue of Enel SpA (ENEI.MI).

It also was the co-lead on Banco Espirito Santo's (BES.LS) $1.6 billion rights issue, as well as a co-manager on Italy's Seat Pagine Gialle Spa's (PGIT.MI) $255 million deal.

Its capital markets division is growing. The bank is employing around 40 people in its equity capital markets team in the EMEA region, significantly up from the 15 to 20 people in the Nomura team before the deal.

It has also recruited Goldman Sachs (GS.N) bankers Johannes Hertz and Gianluca Gera to join as managing directors earlier this year, reporting to Ken Brown, head of Equity Capital Markets, Investment Banking.

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(Editing by David Cowell) ($1 = 1.077 Swiss francs = 0.7126 euro)