TOKYO Reuters -- Mitsubishi UFJUFJ Financial Group Inc MUFG Japan's largest lender by assets reported a 70.3% plunge in first-quarter net profit, blaming a one-off loss related to the sale of MUFG Union Bank.
Mitsubishi UFJ, which owns 21.5% of Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley, reported a net profit of 113.7 billion yen $869.1 million for the April-June period, against 383.1 billion yen a year earlier.
The loss of 254 billion yen on bonds and other asset held by MUFG Union Bank was an accounting treatment required ahead of the $8 billion sale of the U.S. retail banking unit to U.S. Bancorp later this year.
The bank said that the loss would be partially offset when the sale is complete, and the overall impact on full-year net profit is expected to be around 200 billion yen.
Mitsubishi UFJ saw loan growth overseas as an economic recovery due to the easing of the pandemic curbs and has revived commercial activities as well as demand for borrowing for business expansions and investments.
The bank posted a record profit in the first year, but it maintained its full-year profit forecast of 1 trillion yen, a 12% drop from the previous year. The outlook was compared to the average forecast of 1.05 trillion yen from 13 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
The full-year profit forecasts for the two other Japanese megabanks, Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, also maintained their full-year profit forecasts last week.