Hokuhoku Financial Group raised its forecast for net profit attributable to owners of the parent in the year to March 2027 to ¥75bn from ¥62bn, an increase of 21.0%. Ordinary profit is now guided at ¥108.5bn, up from ¥89bn, against ¥80.8bn in the year to March 2026. The revision came in a notice dated November 2 that also lifted the dividend forecast.
What management says drove it
The company gave two reasons: deposits and loans have held up well, and funds-related profit, including income from securities, is now expected to exceed the original forecast. It also expects credit costs to come in below plan. The notice does not break the upgrade into yen contributions by driver, and it does not mention interest rates or Bank of Japan policy.
The two banks
The group's subsidiary banks show where the improvement sits. Hokuriku Bank now sees core gross business profit of ¥112bn, up from ¥103bn, with expenses trimmed to ¥48bn from ¥49.5bn and credit costs cut to ¥0.5bn from ¥3.5bn. Its net profit forecast rises to ¥46.5bn from ¥38.5bn. Hokkaido Bank lifts core gross business profit to ¥76bn from ¥70bn and net profit to ¥23.5bn from ¥19bn, while keeping credit costs at ¥2.5bn.
For the six months to September 30, the forecast net profit is ¥42bn, up from a prior ¥31.5bn and from ¥30.4bn in the same period a year earlier. These are forecasts, not reported results.
Dividend and share split
The annual dividend forecast rises to ¥190 per share on a pre-split basis from ¥150, against ¥110 for the previous year. The company carried out a ten-for-one split on October 1, so the same figures are ¥19 after the split, up from ¥15 and ¥11. The interim payment of ¥95 uses the pre-split share count, and the ¥9.50 year-end payment uses the post-split count. Forecast full-year earnings per share, adjusted for the split, are ¥62.83, up from a prior ¥52.27 and ¥48.48 a year earlier.
The company says it will keep balancing investment for growth and retained earnings against shareholder returns.