Dai-Ichi Life Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest publicly-traded insurer, jumped in Tokyo trading after announcing a share buyback plan and a better-than-expected annual profit forecast.
The company plans to buy back up to 120 billion yen ($882 million) worth of shares from May 16 through March 31, 2024, according to a statement on Monday. Dai-Ichi Life also expects 273 billion yen in net income for the current fiscal year ending March, beating the consensus estimate of 263 billion yen in a Bloomberg survey.
Shares of Dai-Ichi jumped as much as 6.34%, the biggest gain since Dec. 20. The life insurer will put an upper limit of 90 million on the number of shares it plans to buy back, or 9.11% of its outstanding shares.
Separately, Japan Post Holdings Co. said on Monday it plans to buy back up to 10% of outstanding shares. The stock of the state-run mail and financial services giant rose 1.9%.
