Japanese operator Softbank reported net profit for the fiscal year to March 2016 down 26.9 percent to JPY 558.2 billion, hurt by writedowns of JPY 153.2 billion on its foreign investments, mainly mobile phone distributor Brightstar. Revenues still rose 7.6 percent to JPY 9.153 trillion, while operating income climbed 8.8 percent to JPY 999.4 billion. Adjusted EBITDA rose 19 percent to JPY 2.439 trillion, led by a 51 percent improvement at Sprint and 4 percent growth at the Japan telecom business.
In Japan, net sales amounted to JPY 3.10 trillion, an increase of 4.1 percent year-on-year. Sprint’s net sales amounted to JPY 3.6 trillion, up by 2.6 percent in the period, and Yahoo Japan’s net sales reached JPY 642.8 billion, an increase of 52.9 percent year-on-year. The Distribution segment’s net sales amounted to JPY 1.3 trillion, up 15 percent year-on-year.
Softbank had 32 million mobile subscribers in Japan at year-end, following 488,000 net additions in the year. Smartphones and tablet users increased in the fiscal year, which was partially offset by feature phone net losses, the company said. This helped mobile ARPU rise 2 percent year-on-year to JPY 4,680 in the final quarter.
The number of subscribers for broadband services stood at 5 million, a 722,000 increase from the previous year. This mainly reflected an increase of 1.59 million subscribers to the fibre service SoftBank Hikari, while subscribers for Yahoo! BB hikari with FLET’S12 decreased by 664,000 and subscribers for Yahoo! BB ADSL decreased by 212,000. In total, Softbank had over 1.72 million fibre subscribers at year end, and the company said bundled offers with FTTH were helping to reduce churn.
The company reported a strong increase in free cash flow for the year, to JPY 402.2 billion from JPY 113.3 billion last year. This supported an increase in its annual dividend to JPY 44 per share from JPY 41. Softbank did not give a forecast for the current year's results.
