Mizuho Q1 net profit up 36%, full-year forecast kept

[TOKYO] Mizuho Financial Group said on Tuesday net profit rose 36 per cent for its first quarter ended in June, boosted by a sharp recovery in banking business at home and overseas after a particularly weak year.

Japan's second-largest lender by assets said net profit came in at 161 billion yen (S$1.97 billion) for the April-June period, up from 118.3 billion a year earlier.

Mizuho, the least profitable of Japan's three biggest banks, booked a sharp fall in profit in the last financial year, hurt by a decline in its bond trading business. That set the bar lower for year-on-year profit comparisons than its rivals.

For the full year through March, Mizuho kept its own forecast of 570 billion yen in net profit, down 1.1 per cent from the previous year and above an average estimate of 537.3 billion in a poll of 13 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

REUTERS