NTT DoCoMo sales down, net boosted by ATT Wireless sale30 January 2005
Japan's top mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo said a discount war hurt revenue but net profit still rose more than 50 percent in the nine months to December due to gains on the sale of its ATT Wireless stake.
Net profit rose 53.1 percent to 756.54 billion yen (7.3 billion dollars) in the period on the back of a gain of 501.78 billion yen from the sale of its 16 percent stake in US telecom giant AT and T Wireless, NTT DoCoMo said.
Pretax profit rose 49.5 percent to 1.25 trillion yen.
However, operating profit fell 10.9 percent at 751.35 billion yen on sales of 3.64 trillion yen, down 4.8 percent from a year earlier, after being hit by deeper family discounts and free e-mail services, the company said.
"As our business environment is severe, we must continue our efforts in cutting operational costs," NTT DoCoMo senior executive vice president Masayuki Hirata told a news conference.
DoCoMo's average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) -- a key measure of a telecoms operator performance -- stood at 7,300 yen during the nine months, down 8.08 percent from a year earlier.
The number of subscribers to DoCoMo's value-added third-generation (3G) FOMA service, which allows the transmission of large amounts of data and video calls, nearly triploed to 8.5 million from 3.0 million a year earlier.
Subscription to its second-generation mobile phone service fell 8.9 percent to 39.4 million as migration to the newer system continued.
"While our business climate is expected to become harsher in the future ... we will continuously work to achieve further growth," NTT DoCoMo president and chief executive officer Masao Nakamura said in a statement.
Japan will allow subscribers to switch carriers without changing their mobile phone numbers in 2006, which is posing a challenge, he said.
For the year to March 2005, the company left its forecast unchanged at a net profit of 758 billion yen and pretax profit of 1.32 trillion yen on revenue of 4.82 trillion yen.
Source: AFP via Yahoo
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