TOKYO: Japanese Internet and telecoms giant Softbank said Thursday net profit jumped 50 percent in the nine months to December thanks to the continuing popularity of the iPhone and iPad.
Japan's only carrier of Apple products said group net profit reached 142.3 billion yen ($1.74 billion) in the three quarters.
One of Asia's biggest tech conglomerates with large holdings in Internet provider Yahoo! Japan and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Softbank has also capitalised on the larger revenue from expanded data traffic.
Softbank revised up its forecast for the full-year operating profit by 20 percent to 600 billion yen "mainly reflecting the strong earnings momentum at the Mobile Communications segment", the company said in a statement.
Operating profit soared 31.6 percent to 482.2 billion yen, as sales grew 10 percent to 2.25 trillion yen.
"Net subscriber additions for the period totalled 2,523,300, of which 925,700 net subscribers were added in the third quarter," the company said, saying the increase was driven by strong iPhone sales.
For the three months to December, Softbank reported its net profit increased nearly three-fold to 65.46 billion yen from 24.11 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.
Separately, Softbank said it has bought a 35 percent stake in Synacast Corp, which provides online TV services in China.
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