Earnings: Softbank Rev Up, Expenses Too

Tokyo-based Softbank has reported an operating profit of 271.07 billion yen ($2.26 billion) for the year ended March 31, compared to 62.3 billion yen a year earlier. “Profit at Softbank’s mobile unit rose 1.8 times to 134.6 billion yen (US$1.12 billion) in 2006/07, up from 76.3 billion yen when the business was owned by Britain’s Vodafone,” reports Reuters. Softbank gained 23 percent of the net subscriber adds in Japan for the year (compared to DoCoMo getting 20 percent and KDDI getting more than half) and now has about 16 percent of Japan’s 96.7 million mobile subscribers. Softbank plans to invest 326 billion yen (US$2.72 billion) over the next year in expanding its network. Softbank’s ARPU fell by 6.3 percent to 5,210 yen ($US43.44) thanks to cheaper price plans, but a shift to 3G services saw customers spend an average of 50 yen more on data in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter.

AP via TelecomsAsia notes that Softbank Group’s net profit for the year fell to 28.8 billion yen ($240 million), down by half from the 57.6 billion yen the year before. However group revenue more than doubled to 2.544 trillion yen ($21.2 billion) for the fiscal year, up from 1.11 trillion yen a year earlier, largely due to it buying Vodafone’s Japanese efforts.

Briefings Presentation

Comments have been disabled for this post