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Saturday January 26, 12:07 AMJapan's KDDI profits rise, raises full-year forecast
KDDI has cashed in since Japan revised rules in October 2006 to allow customers to switch mobile telephone operators without changing their phone numbers. The company has also tried to steal a march by introducing a new discount cellular service in September, although top-ranked rival NTT DoCoMo Inc. quickly hit back with a similar deal. KDDI said its net profit for the nine months rose 12.4 percent to 214.8 billion yen (2.0 billion dollars) from the same period last year, with operating profit up 17.4 percent at 371.0 billion yen. Revenue increased 7.2 percent to 2.64 trillion yen, the company said. "Based on the progress made so far this fiscal year, we have upgraded our full-year projections. We expect to post an operating profit of more than 400 billion yen for the first time," KDDI president Tadashi Onodera told a news conference. KDDI said the number of subscribers to its mainstay "au" cellphone service rose by nearly 1.9 million over the nine-month period to 29.20 million at the end of December. The company is forecasting that its "au" subscriber base will reach 30 million by the end of March, giving it a 30 percent share of the market. KDDI said it now expected revenue of 3.58 trillion yen, up from its earlier estimate of 3.5 trillion yen. It revised up its forecast of operating profit at 414 billion yen for the year to March, up from 390 billion yen, while it left its net profit predictions unchanged. Softbank Corp., the third-ranked Japanese cellular operator, has been pulling in the most new customers despite efforts by KDDI and DoCoMo. Japan, a nation of 127 million people, has more than 100 million mobile phones in operation and a declining population, spelling major challenges for service providers to achieve growth. |
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