Mitsubishi Corp., Japan's biggest trading company, posted a 12.5% rise in October-December profit on high oil and metals prices, and kept its forecast for full-year growth of 14%.
Mitsubishi, a major supplier of coking coal and liquid natural gas on world markets, booked 114.4 billion yen ($941.4 million) in three-month net profit under U.S. accounting rules, versus 101.74 billion yen a year earlier.
It kept its full-year net profit forecast of 400 billion yen, a fourth consecutive record profit, but short of a consensus estimate of 413.06 billion yen in a Reuters Estimates survey of 12 analysts.
Japan's big five trading firms are all expected to ring up record profits in the year to March as prices of crude oil, coal, copper, iron ore and other commodities -- the source of up to 60 percent of their profits -- exceeded the firms' conservative assumed prices.
The big five also include Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo Corp., Itochu Corp. and Marubeni Corp.