Regan Kaczon blog

MUFG to buy RBS project book; raises forecast

TOKYO (Reuters) – Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T) said it will acquire project finance loans and assets from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) worth 3.8 billion pounds ($6.1 billion), expanding its overseas reach as loan demand remains tepid in Japan.

Japan's biggest bank by assets also raised its full-year profit outlook by 25 percent after bond trading gains and falls in credit costs helped second-quarter net profit nearly triple.

MUFG and smaller rivals Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T) and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T) have seen strong profit growth this financial year, but their core lending operations remain weak as companies remain reluctant to spend due to a murky economic outlook.

MUFG has been the most active among Japan's top banks in expanding overseas, taking a one-fifth stake in U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS.N) at the height of the financial crisis. It also bought assets from two U.S. banks this year.

Sources said earlier this month that MUFG was in talks to buy the project finance book from RBS.

MUFG lifted its forecast to 500 billion yen ($6.1 billion) in net profit for the year ending March. That compared with 400 billion yen previously and was above an average estimate of 469.8 billion yen in a poll of 15 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

MUFG's July-September net profit was 190.4 billion yen, up from 65.0 billion yen a year earlier.

Credit Suisse had forecast a net profit of 126.7 billion yen for MUFG in the second quarter, while Citigroup Global Markets Japan had estimated a 131.9 billion yen net profit.

Reuters calculated MUFG's quarterly figures and the brokerage forecasts by subtracting first-quarter results from six-month figures.

Shares of MUFG have lost about 14 percent so far this year, underperforming a 7 percent drop in the benchmark Nikkei average (.N225).

Before the results, the stock ended down 0.3 percent, against the Nikkei's 1.1 percent rise.

(Writing by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Edwina Gibbs)