Japan's Mitsubishi banking group profit soars

Japan's top banking group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said Wednesday its net profit for the nine months to December leapt by almost half on a one-time gain. Net profit for the period came to 815.8 billion yen ($10.7 billion), up 47.8 percent from 551.8 billion yen a year ago. Pre-tax profit rose 47.3 percent to 1.23 trillion yen, on sales of 3.79 trillion yen, up 8.6 percent, it said. The group said earnings "significantly improved due to a negative goodwill of 290.6 billion yen" in connection with its holding in Morgan Stanley. Negative goodwill is a gain that occurs when a company is bought for less than the fair value of its net assets. The Japanese bank owns 22.4 percent of the Wall Street giant after offering it a $9 billion lifeline following the global financial crisis in 2008. Bond-trading gains also helped lift MUFG's profit, but it was hampered by lower income from consumer finance and preferred stock dividends, it said. For the current fiscal year ending in March, MUFG maintained its group net profit target at 900 billion yen.