News
Japanese operator’s revenue increases 7.9% to 6.8 trillion on strong domestic growth, U.S. dollar.
Softbank this week reported 7.9% growth in nine-month revenue, but profit fell 25.9% due to one-off items.
In the nine months to 31 December, the Japanese operator generated revenue of ¥6.81 trillion (€53.91 billion), up from ¥6.31 trillion in the same period a year earlier.
Softbank said the increase was driven by organic growth at its domestic operation and its Brightstar handset distribution arm. The performance was also attributed to the consolidation of Yahoo Japan’s stake in stationery retailer Askul, and the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the yen.
Operating income came in at ¥875.32 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18%, driven primarily by Yahoo Japan and the domestic business.
However, net profit fell to ¥428.97 billion from ¥579.45 billion a year earlier. This was caused by Softbank lowering its stake in videogame company GungHo and listing it as a discontinued operation rather than a subsidiary.
Meanwhile, on the operational side, Softbank’s domestic consumer arm performed well, growing nine-month service revenue by 2.4% to ¥1.79 trillion, driven by continued growth in mobile and by the launch of its Hikari fibre broadband service in March 2015. During the nine months to 31 December, its domestic mobile subscriber base increased by 136,000 to 31.69 million.
As previously reported, Softbank’s U.S. arm Sprint ended December 2015 with 58.4 million mobile customers, up from 54.9 million a year earlier.
