Japan’s SoftBank has reported a solid 20% increase in net profit for the nine months ending in December to 1.01 trillion yen ($9.35 billion), partly as a result of cost cutting at US subsidiary Sprint.
Net sales for the first nine months of SoftBank’s financial year grew 3.5% to 6.58 trillion yen, with revenue increasing across all the company’s market segments.
Domestic telecoms revenue grew slightly to 2.406 trillion yen despite a 1.4% decrease in telecoms service revenue to 1.8 trillion yen.
Mobile service revenue fell 5% to 1.36 trillion yen, but broadband revenue improved 23.2% to 240.02 billion yen and fixed telecommunications revenue edged up 0.5% to 200.86 billion yen.
Smartphone net additions for the nine-month period grew to 1.13 million, with the operator’s total mobile customer base growing to just under 33 million, while churn fell slightly to 0.84%.
SoftBank’s FTTH subscriber base meanwhile reached 4.67 million, up from 3.14 million as of the end of 2016.
Net sales at Sprint increased 2.6% to 2.72 trillion yen, while the unit’s adjusted ebitda grew 19.1% to 938.8 trillion won on the back of cost reduction efforts that resulted in nearly $1 billion in savings. Net sales from Yahoo Japan increased from 630.8 billion yen to 651.5 billion yen.