Japan's NTT April-December profit up 24.5pc

TOKYO: Japan's biggest telecom firm NTT Corp. said Wednesday that its net profit for the nine months to December jumped 24.5 percent, largely due to upbeat performance at its mobile phone unit.

The former monopoly said it earned 447.3 billion yen ($4.8 billion) for the period, up from 359.2 billion yen a year earlier.

Revenue edged 1.8 percent higher to 7.92 trillion yen, but operating profit slipped 1.6 percent to 993.2 billion yen, said NTT, the parent company of several major Japanese firms including top mobile operator NTT DoCoMo.

NTT, whose business includes fixed-line and mobile phone services, said the contribution from DoCoMo led the parent company's overall profitability with strong domestic smartphone sales.

Last week DoCoMo, Japan's biggest mobile carrier, said its net profit rose 5.5 percent to 416.5 billion yen for the nine months, while sales rose 6.2 percent to 3.37 trillion yen.

On Wednesday, the parent company left its full-year forecast unchanged, projecting net profit at 530 billion yen and an operating profit at 1.2 trillion yen on sales of 10.81 trillion yen for the fiscal year to March.