Sumitomo Mitsui slashes full-year earnings forecast

Tokyo - Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc on Wednesday said it expects full-year profits to fall by more than 60 per cent due to the global financial crisis.

Sumitomo Mitsui, one of Japan's three mega banks, expects its net profit to fall 62.5 per cent to 180 billion yen (1.9 billion dollars) for the fiscal year through March, compared to a 480-billion-yen profit it forecast in May.

Sumitomo Mitsui estimated its operating revenues for the financial year to decline 5.1 per cent to 3.7 trillion yen from an initially projected 3.9 trillion yen, due to rising loan-loss provisions as well as losses in its stock investments.

The group suffered a loss of more than 10 billion yen related to the bankruptcy of US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

For the first two quarters through September, Sumitomo Mitsui estimated net profits to drop to 85 billion yen, sharply down from the initial projection of 210 billion yen, it said in a preliminary earnings statement.

The group was expected to report its quarterly earnings next week. (dpa)

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