Japan's Aozora Bank may project net loss -report

TOKYO (Reuters) - Aozora Bank (8304.T) will likely become Japan's first big bank to project a net loss for the year to March, revising down its earlier profit projection due to the global financial crisis, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday.

Aozora, whose top shareholder is Cerberus Capital Management [CBS.UL], slashed its net profit forecast in September to 15 billion yen from 26.2 billion yen for the year ending next March, citing increased credit costs and equity derivatives losses.

Aozora is now likely to forecast a net loss of several tens of billion yen, the newspaper said.

The once-nationalised bank, which has yet to repay all its public funds, may have to take responsibility for the loss by reshuffling its top management and may also scale back its recently expanded international investment operations, the report said.

Aozora will report fiscal half results on Friday.

(Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani)