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By Bloomberg

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. plans to buy back shares after annual profit exceeded 1 trillion yen ($8.4 billion) for the first time.

Japan’s biggest bank said it will spend 100 billion yen purchasing its shares in the second buyback in the past year. Net income rose 5 percent to 1.03 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, the lender said in a statement on Friday.

Mitsubishi UFJ stands alone among Japan’s three so-called megabanks in buying back stock as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urges companies to boost returns to investors. The Tokyo-based lenders face the dilemma of either sharing more earnings with investors or putting the money into expanding abroad to counter shrinking loan profitability at home.

Net income will probably fall to 950 billion yen in the current year, Mitsubishi UFJ said. That’s lower than the 1.06 trillion yen average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Last year’s profit beat the bank’s target for 950 billion yen and was in line with analysts’ estimates.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the country’s third-biggest bank by market value, said earlier Friday that net income will climb 3 percent to 630 billion yen this year. Profit fell 11 percent to 611.9 billion yen in the year ended March, it said. Mizuho raised its full-year dividend to 7.5 yen from 7 yen planned previously.

Mitsubishi UFJ also bought back shares for 100 billion yen late last year.