TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc said on Thursday it didn’t see any issues that may affect its profit forecast, after the Financial Times said Mizuho had conducted an investigation on its possible losses related to Archegos Capital Management.
“We refrain from making comments on individual deals, but we don’t currently see any issue that may affect our profit forecast,” said a spokeswoman for Mizuho.
Losses at Archegos, a family office run by former Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang, sparked a fire sale of stocks including media giant ViacomCBS and Discovery on Friday, a source familiar with the matter said earlier this week.
The disappointing stock sale triggered devastating bank margin calls for Archegos, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan’s largest investment bank, warned of a possible $2 billion loss, while Credit Suisse said a default on margin calls by a U.S.-based fund could be “highly significant and material” to its first-quarter results.
The securities unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said on Wednesday its loss related to a U.S. client was estimated at around $270 million. These three companies did not identify the client.
While the Mizuho spokeswoman said the bank doesn’t do prime brokerage business globally, the Financial Times, which cited people close to the situation, said Mizuho had provided substantial equivalent facilities to Archegos and that its potential losses could be similar to those of MUFG.
Reporting by Takashi Umekawa. Editing by Tom Hogue and Mark Potter
