The company had earlier expected a pre-tax loss of 2.0 billion yen (19 million dollars) for the year.

The company also said it expected a bigger loss of 54.4 billion yen this year.

It had a loss of 50 billion yen in the period a year ago.

The return to profitability followed a loss of 1.2 billion yen in the previous year.

That compared with a net loss of 51.1 billion yen ($472.5 million) in the comparable period last year.

The company said it expected a loss of 25 billion yen, or $191 million, in the half ending on Sept. 30.

The company said that for the fiscal year ending in March it expected a loss of 32 billion yen, or $304 million.

Until today the company had been forecasting a loss of 12 billion yen, or about $114 million.

The company raised the figure from a loss of 25 billion yen that it forecast in November.

The banking group had a net loss of 608.92 billion yen the previous year.