Profit at Japan Post rises 6.5%
Japan Post Holdings Co. group net profit rose 6.5% to 450.2bn yen in the year ended March 31 as profits from financial operations made up for losses in its postal business, reports Nikkei. The article continues:
Revenue fell 6% to 18.77 trillion yen because postal operations handled less mail and the postal savings balance declined.
Pretax profit jumped 21.3% to just over 1 trillion yen.
Financial operations, which consist of Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance Co., accounted for 80% of fiscal 2009 net profit, compared with slightly more than 60% the previous year. This stems from the stock market recovery, which eliminated valuation losses on shares held by the banking and insurance arms through money trusts.
Japan Post Bank saw its net profit jump 29.3% to 296.7bn yen. And at Japan Post Insurance, net profit soared 83% to 70.1bn yen.
Meanwhile, postal operations suffered their first net loss in seven years, hit by 79.7bn yen in extraordinary losses, resulting from the review of plans to integrate door-to-door parcel delivery service with that of Nippon Express Co. The net loss at Japan Post Service Co. came to 47.4bn yen.
Japan Post Network Co., a unit that manages post offices and over-the-counter services, earned a 32.9bn yen net profit, down 19.3%, as revenues from services rendered for Japan Post and others declined.
“The environment surrounding the Japan Post group is tough,” said Eisuke Fujimoto, senior managing executive officer at the holding company.
The aggregate outstanding balance of postal savings had dropped 1.5 trillion yen from a year earlier to roughly 176 trillion yen as of March 31. And with a large number of time deposits slated to mature, it is expected to decline again this fiscal year.
The Japan Post group will also have to deal with rising labor costs, partly as a result of postal reform minister Shizuka Kamei’s directive to turn part-timers into full-time employees.
This fiscal year, Japan Post Holdings sees its net profit declining 8.9% to 410bn yen.
