Japan’s biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ reports 3-fold jump in Q2 profit
MITSUBISHI UFJ Financial Group Inc, Japan’s largest lender by assets, said on Tuesday (Nov 14) its second-quarter net profit jumped more than three times from a year earlier, buoyed by healthy margins from lending in Japan and overseas.
Mitsubishi UFJ posted net profit of 368.89 billion yen (S$3.3 billion) for July-September, against 117.41 billion yen a year earlier, when it suffered an accounting loss related to the sale of US unit MUFG Union Bank, according to Reuters calculations based on six-month cumulative figures disclosed in a filing.
The Japanese bank kept its full-year profit forecast at a record 1.3 trillion yen, compared with an average forecast of 1.374 trillion yen from 13 analyst estimates compiled by LSEG.
Mitsubishi UFJ also said it would buy back up to 3.31 per cent Of its own shares worth 400 billion yen.
A day earlier, Mizuho Financial Group, the third-largest Japanese lender, raised its full-year profit forecast to 640 billion yen (S$5.7 billion) from 610 billion yen, outpacing the 625.56 billion yen average analyst estimate.
The Japanese banks continued to benefit from a recovery in economic activity at home, wider margins from lending in Japan and the US and a weak yen that boosted profits earned overseas.
The market widely expects the banks’ earnings momentum to pick up further in coming quarters, sending Tokyo’s benchmark index of banking stocks to 15-year highs, as the Bank of Japan continues to dismantle its ultra-easy monetary policy settings. REUTERS
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