Mizuho Financial Group

May 13, 2022

05/13/2022 | 03:12am EDT Message : *Required fields TOKYO, May 13 (Reuters) - Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Japan's third-largest lender by assets, reported onFriday a 55.6% drop in fourth-quarter net profit, as it tookmore than $700 million in provisions for its Russian exposure. Mizuho said profit for the January-March quarter was 51.8billion yen ($402.5 million). That compared with an averageprofit estimate of 78.61 billion yen from three analystssurveyed by Refinitiv. Mizuho added 96.9 billion yen to its reserves in the quarterto prepare for losses from direct exposures in Russia, areversal from early last year, when it freed up loss reservesbuilt up during the COVID-19 pandemic. The banking group expects 540 billion yen in net income forthe current business year, up 1.7% from the previous year. Theoutlook compared with the average 574.60 billion yen forecast by13 analysts. Mizuho forecasts a drop in credit-related costs this year onexpectations the economy will gradually recover as the impact ofthe pandemic wanes. Corporate bankruptcies in Japan have remained low thanks togovernment subsidies and zero-interest loans to small businessesto cushion them from the economic effect of the pandemic. But analysts say there will be a limit to how much suchsubsidies can continue to suppress bankruptcies, since theUkraine crisis and a weak yen are pushing up fuel and rawmaterial costs. ($1 = 128.6900 yen)(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Christopher Cushingand Bradley Perrett)