Japanese communications provider Softbank saw its first quarter net sales grow over 5 percent while income dropped almost 30 percent. Net sales in the three months to June totalled JPY 700.84 billion, up 5.2 percent from JPY 666.33 billion in the year-ago period, reflecting steady sales at Softbank Mobile. Operating income went up 44.6 percent to JPY 156.60 billion, and ordinary income rose 61 percent to JPY 126.84 billion, driven by earnings growth in the mobile communications segment due to an increase in the number of mobile subscribers and an increase in ARPU. Softbank recorded a net income of JPY 19.44 billion, down 29 percent from JPY 27.38 billion a year earlier, mainly due to an increase in total income taxes. For the full year, Softbank expects operating income of JPY 500 billion, up 7.3 percent year-on-year.
Softbank Mobile posted sales of JPY 441.08 billion, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier. Operating income at the unit went up 70.4 percent to JPY 102.66 billion. During the quarter, Softbank Mobile recorded 696,600 net additions, bringing its total to 22.57 million. ARPU rose JPY 260 year-on-year to JPY 4,290, with data ARPU rising JPY 370 to JPY 2,250 as a result of increased data-intensive iPhone subscribers, the termination of the non-data-intensive 2G service, and also a further increase in data telecommunication use by non-iPhone subscribers.
The broadband infrastructure unit saw its sales drop 7.7 percent to JPY 49.32 billion as the number of active ADSL lines at Softbank BB fell. The unit posted a net income of JPY 11.69 billion, down 15.1 percent. The cumulative number of Yahoo! BB hikari with FLET'S contracts totalled 405,000 as of the end of the period, which combined with installed lines of ADSL service brought the total number of users to 4.01 million.
Softbank's fixed-line unit posted sales of JPY 85.88 billion, down 1 percent, mainly due to the continued decrease in revenue from relay connection voice services including Myline and international telephone services. Total customers stood at 1.67 million. Operating income increased by 89.7 percent to JPY 6.66 billion. Despite the continuing decline in revenue, there was a significant profit increase as a result of decreases in lease payments on equipment for the Otoku Line service.
The internet culture segment saw sales rise 5 percent to JPY 68.41 billion, boosted by sales at Yahoo! Japan, related to a year-on-year recovery in listing and display advertising and growth in Yahoo! Shopping’s transaction value.