CORRECTED: Sumitomo Trust in red for 2nd yr on hefty stock...

TOKYO, May 26 Kyodo

Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. said Monday it fell into the red for the second year in a row in the year ended March 31 due chiefly to hefty appraisal losses on shareholdings as a result of lower stock prices, as well as bad-loan disposals.

Sumitomo Trust reported a group net loss of 72.97 billion yen, widening from the previous year's loss of 42.48 billion yen.

The bank blamed the widened loss on 127.7 billion yen in securities-related losses on an unconsolidated basis, of which 100.9 billion yen were appraisal losses.

It also singled out loan-loss charges of 87.8 billion yen, including 20.3 billion yen related to trust banking operations.

Net loss per share was 50.80 yen, compared with 29.88 yen the previous year.

Sumitomo Trust also incurred a consolidated pretax loss of 66.16 billion yen, compared with the previous year's loss of 56.76 billion yen.

Group operating revenue fell 21.4% to 562.69 billion yen.

The balance of loans defined as bad loans under government rules fell to 402.2 billion yen on a parent-only basis at the end of March from 689.0 billion yen at the end of March 2002.

The capital-adequacy ratio declined to a preliminary 10.48% from 10.86% at the end of fiscal 2001.

Sumitomo Trust said it plans to reduce its year-end per-share dividend by 2 yen to 3 yen on common shares. It skipped interim dividends.

For the current business year to next March 31, the bank expects to return to profitability with a group net profit of 44 billion yen and a group pretax profit of 75 billion yen.

The bank said it plans to raise its year-end dividend by 1 yen to 4 yen on common shares for the current business year.