TOKYO (Reuters) - Mizuho Financial Group Inc. will freeze its outstanding share buyback plan at least until March, seeking to safeguard its capital adequacy amid the global financial crisis, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The major Japanese banking group declined to comment on the report. It will announce fiscal first-half results on Thursday.
Mizuho will postpone its program to buy back 250 billion yen worth ($2.56 billion) of its shares, planned for the rest of the current fiscal year, to next fiscal year or later, the report said.
Mizuho, which recapitalized by issuing preferred shares in 2003, mapped out a plan in May to buy back 800 billion yen worth of its shares in the two years to March 2010 to fight supply pressure from the conversion of preferred shares into common shares.
The banking group spent 150 billion yen in September in the first batch of this share buyback program.
Mizuho will likely not adopt another recapitalization plan, the report said.
Another Japanese “megabank”, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, said on Oct 27 it would raise up to $10.6 billion to replenish its capital base deleted by a plunging stock market and its investment in Morgan Stanley.