Sumitomo Mitsui's Q3 net grows by $1.39bln

The bank raked in the highest profit in seven quarters and topped combined profits of Japan's megabanks.

Sumitomo Mitsui, which last year bought Citigroup's Japanese brokerage and has a 2 percent stake in Barclays Plc, reported a group net profit of 124.3 billion yen ($1.4 billion) for October-December versus 154 million yen in the year-ago quarter.

The results mark the bank's highest quarterly earnings since January-March 2008.

While Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group have made a slow recovery from the global financial crisis, Sumitomo appears to be improving at a quicker pace, helped by an improvement in its stock portfolio and a decline in bad loans.

The bank's October-December earnings outstripped the combined results of Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho in the same period, a rare result from the smallest of Japan's three "megabanks."

However, analysts cautioned that it was still too early to declare a full-fledged recovery, given that Sumitomo Mitsui's lending business remains sluggish, due to chronic weakness in Japan's economy.

View the full report in Reuters.