SMFG profit more than triples, expects record annual earnings again
TOKYO, May 13 : Japan's second-largest lender, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, on Wednesday booked a 350 per cent jump in fourth-quarter net profit and forecast another year of record earnings for the period to March 31, 2027.
The banking group made 188.20 billion yen ($1.19 billion) in net profit in the January-March quarter, up from 42 billion yen over the same period a year prior.
• The results cap off a fruitful year as SMFG generated record annual net profit of 1.583 trillion yen, above last year's record of 1.18 trillion yen, shrugging off the shock of proposed tariffs and rising geopolitical instability.
• SMFG forecast a further rise to 1.7 trillion yen, or a 7.4 per cent rise, for the current year.
• SMFG also said it would buy back up to 180 billion yen worth of its own shares, or up to 1.0 per cent of outstanding shares, and cancel all bought shares on August 20.
• It will conduct a two-for-one stock split for shareholders as of September 30.
• Japan's banking sector has boomed in recent years as the end of deflation in Japan has sparked a wave of corporate activity such as mergers and acquisitions and growth investment, boosting lending demand.
• Alongside, the Bank of Japan's interest rate hikes, beginning in March 2024, has pushed up lending margins.
• Amid rising concern for the creditworthiness of global private credit funds, SMFG said it had outstanding private credit-related loan balance of 1.2 trillion yen ($7.61 billion).
• SMFG chief executive Toru Nakashima said he had no great concerns about the bank's exposure to private credit.
($1 = 157.6800 yen)
($1 = 157.7700 yen)
