Japan’s Mizuho Financial reports 36% drop in Q1 net profit

TOKYO – Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Japan’s third-largest lender by assets, reported on Friday a 36% drop in first-quarter net profit from a year ago when earnings were boosted by tax-related gains.

Mizuho said profit for the April-June quarter came in at 159.29 billion yen ($1.20 billion). That compared with an average profit estimate of 115.25 billion yen from two analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

The banking group maintained its full-year net profit forecast at 540 billion yen, compared to the average 550.60 billion yen forecast by 12 analysts.

($1 = 132.6800 yen)

(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)