TOKYO - JAPAN'S top broker Nomura Holdings, which lost more than 1.5 billion dollars (S$2.16 billion) in the six months to September, said on Tuesday it will not renew its sponsorship of the Japanese Olympic Committee.

Nomura, an official sponsor of the JOC since 1999, said the current four-year contract would expire at year's end on Wednesday.

'The company has decided not to renew the contract after this year,' said a spokesman.

He declined to disclose the cost of the deal, but the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper put it at 300 million yen (S$4.76 million) over four years.

AIU Insurance, a non-life insurance firm under the umbrella of struggling US insurance giant AIG, has also decided not to renew its sponsorship deal.

JOC secretary general Kenichi Chizuka said Nomura's decision was 'very regrettable' and that he 'cannot foresee the outlook' for the organisation's sponsorship in 2009 and beyond, Kyodo News reported. -- AFP