Dentsu Inc. on Thursday cut its net balance estimate for fiscal 2008 and forecasted a group net loss of ¥20.45 billion instead of a profit of ¥11 billion as predicted in February.

The loss would be the first for the nation's most powerful ad agency since it went public in 2001. The company booked losses during its startup phase in fiscal 1901 and 1902.

Dentsu issued the revision after taking an evaluation loss of about ¥51 billion on shares of a French ad agency it has a stake in.

For group operating profit, Dentsu expects to log ¥43.18 billion, up 20.6 percent from the Feb. 9 estimate but down 23.1 percent from the previous year.