Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ profits to halve: Report

TOKYO: Top Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial's interim earnings are estimated to have more than halved because of bad debts and weak financial markets, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The megabank now estimates its net profit was about 100 billion yen (1.0 billion dollars) in the six months to September, down from 256.7 billion yen a year earlier, the Nikkei business daily reported without naming its sources.

It said the figure could still change by tens of billions of yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ, which is buying a 21 per cent stake in troubled Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley for nine billion dollars, had previously forecast a 5.0 per cent increase in interim net profits.

The bank is expected to downgrade its earning projections as early as this month, and may also lower its full-year outlook, the report said.

In a brief statement, Mitsubishi UFJ said that no decision had been made yet about possible revisions to its earnings forecasts.

The Nikkei also said Japan's other two megabanks Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial -- may also lower their earnings projections.

Japanese financial firms are believed to be less exposed to losses related to troubled US mortgage loans compared with many Western banks, giving them the opportunity to snap up stakes in troubled Wall Street giants.