Norinchukin Bank’s disastrous last fiscal year has had one silver lining for Japan’s $300 billion investing giant — it helped shield it from the turmoil unleashed by Donald Trump’s tariffs this month.
New Chief Executive Taro Kitabayashi said the bank finished selling off its unprofitable U.S. Treasury holdings by the end of March, thus avoiding the volatility last week as Trump’s trade policies whipsawed markets. Through the end of December, the bank had unloaded ¥12.8 trillion of its holdings in U.S. and European government bonds. The bank is not currently doing any large-scale buying or selling of sovereign debt, he said.
The bank expects to meet its target of between ¥30 billion and ¥70 billion ($210 million — $490 million) in profit for the year that started April 1 and will take its time on committing capital to fresh investments until there is more clarity, Kitabayashi said in an interview. Norinchukin has a mid-term plan of revamping its ¥45.2 trillion portfolio after a surge in U.S. interest rates drove down the value of its foreign bond holdings last year.
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