I like this news, but question a forecast that goes out 3 years, what about next year?
Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Sees
Net Profit of $4.44 Billion in Fiscal 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
TOKYO -- Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc., the new bank to be formed by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi , Mitsubishi Trust & Banking Nippon Trust Bank , will aim for a group net profit of 490 billion yen ($4.44 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 2004.
"Speed is important, so we hope to achieve our [financial] targets by 2003," Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi President Shigemitsu Miki said at a press conference. Mr. Miki also will serve as president of the new bank.
The group net-profit goal compares with the combined net profit of 173 billion yen that the three banks achieved in the fiscal year ended March.
The new bank, to be launched April 2, also will target a return on equity of about 12%, compared with a combined 5.2% in the last fiscal year, Mr. Miki said.
Consolidating their operations is expected to lead to an improvement in earnings of around 43 billion yen, including 32 billion yen in higher earnings and 11 billion yen in costs savings, though this will be reduced by about 3 billion yen to cover the cost of bringing their operations together.
Mr. Miki and the presidents of the other banks spoke to the press after reporting the details of their new bank's plans to Financial Reconstruction Commission Chairman Hideyuki Aizawa.
Mr. Miki indicated that the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has no intention of bowing to political pressure to limit its unwinding of cross-shareholdings in order to prevent stock-market falls. Still, Mr. Miki acknowledged that "timing" was important for the share sales and said his bank will pay attention to the impact of share sales on stock-market stability and the companies in which it owns shares.
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi has said it plans to sell 100 billion yen in cross-shareholdings this fiscal year through March 31.
Separately, Akio Utsumi, president of Mitsubishi Trust, said his bank aims to repay its share of public funds to the government in time for the April consolidation.
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