Japan's Mizuho posts big jump in Q4 profit, forecasts growth ahead

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mizuho Financial Group reported a big jump in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday that beat expectations, helped by its overseas business and demand for loans at home, and it forecast higher profit in the current financial year.

For the January-March fourth quarter, Mizuho reported a group net profit of 36.7 billion yen ($235 million), compared with 12.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

The results also compared to expectations for a 30.8 billion yen quarterly profit, based on the average full-year estimate by 11 analysts polled by LSEG.

For the current financial year, it forecast a full-year profit of 750 billion yen. That compared to the full-year profit of 678.99 billion yen in the year that just ended.

Mizuho is the second of Japan's three megabanks to report quarterly results on Wednesday.

($1 = 156.3500 yen)

(Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by David Dolan)