The Mizuho Financial Group Inc. said Friday it is profitable once again and plans to issue up to ¥800 billion in new common shares to reinforce its capital base.

Japan's second-largest bank by assets plans to carry out the financing, which comes on the heels of a ¥530 billion issuance last summer, over a 12-month period from May 22 as international moves to toughen capital adequacy requirements for internationally active banks gain speed.

The Mizuho group returned to the black in fiscal 2009, which ended March 31, with a group net profit of ¥239.40 billion, according to consolidated results the megabank released Friday. In fiscal 2008, Mizuho logged a group net loss of ¥588.81 billion.

The Tokyo-based financial group also announced a plan to revamp its top management by replacing Chairman Terunobu Maeda, 65, as well as the chairmen of its two core banking units — Hiroshi Saito, 66, of Mizuho Corporate Bank, its investment banking unit, and Seiji Sugiyama, 63, of Mizuho Bank, its retail banking unit, effective June 21.

The three chairmen will become special advisers to Mizuho Financial Group after leaving their posts.

Meanwhile, the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said the same day that it also returned to the black in fiscal 2009, with a group net profit of ¥271.56 billion, compared with a year-earlier loss of ¥373.46 billion, on improvement in global market conditions.

For the year that ended in March, Japan's third-largest banking group also saw pretax profit rise more than 12-fold from the previous year to ¥558.77 billion, on operating revenues of ¥3.17 trillion, down 10.9 percent.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects net profit to rise 25.2 percent to ¥340 billion in fiscal 2010. It is also projecting a pretax profit of ¥690 billion, up 23.5 percent, on revenues of ¥3.4 trillion, up 7.4 percent.