On August 4, 2021, SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) held its earnings results briefing for the first quarter (Q1) of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021 (FY2021). President & CEO Junichi Miyakawa noted that both consolidated revenue and operating income increased year-on-year (YoY) in Q1, and that SoftBank is on track to achieve its full-year net income target, registering 30% of the 500 billion yen full-year forecast.
Enterprise operating income jumps by 23%
All of SoftBank's business segments saw increased revenues in Q1, and revenue came to 1,356.6 billion yen, a YoY increase of 16%. Operating income amounted to 283.1 billion yen, a 1% increase YoY. Operating income in the Enterprise segment stood out with a 23% YoY increase, offsetting the impact on profits in the Consumer segment owing to intensified competition in mobile services.
“Our Enterprise business model has shifted from standalone services to providing solution-based businesses that resolve our clients' issues,” said Miyakawa. “We saw a 19% increase in the recurring revenue portion of our business solution revenue, and this will provide a foundation for stable income and business expansion.”
Miyakawa explained that SoftBank is on track with progress made so far to meet SoftBank's FY2021 full-year forecasts. In Q1, 25% was achieved for revenue, 29% for operating income and 30% for net income. “We'll continue to make efforts to ensure we meet achieve the initial targets we set,” he added.
Consumer segment smartphone subscribers and Yahoo! JAPAN/LINE segment register growth
The Consumer segment saw a 7% YoY increase in smartphone subscribers. The subscriber growth was driven in part by a 10% increase in Y!mobile brand subscribers, which acquired customers from other carriers and some from other SoftBank mobile service brands, which had the effect of retaining customers.
The Yahoo! JAPAN/LINE segment, saw a 36% YoY increase in revenue following the business integration of Z Holdings Corporation and LINE Corporation in March 2021. Despite some one-time accounting costs associated with the consolidation of LINE, the segment also saw an increase in profit thanks to business growth.
In Q1 the smartphone payment service PayPay also continued on its growth trajectory, exceeding 40 million registered users and recording 790 million payments, 1.8 times that of Q1 in the previous fiscal year. Gross merchandise value came to 1.2 trillion yen, a 1.7 times YoY increase.
At the end of the presentation, Miyakawa announced a joint investment with Naver Financial Corporation in TBCASoft, Inc., a company that provides a cross-carrier payment blockchain network designed for QR-based mobile payments. In this new investment round, SoftBank will make an additional investment of up to $5 million US dollars to maintain its stake of 20% in TBCASoft. Explaining the rationale of the investment, Miyakawa said, “As part of our ‘Beyond Carrier' growth strategy, we want to promote ‘Beyond Japan' by expanding our QR code payment ecosystem globally.”
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More info |
Presentation material (PDF: 2.78MB/41 pages) Supplementary materials: Overview of SoftBank (PDF: 1.94MB/20 pages) |
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(First posted on August 3, 2021,
updated on August 6, 2021)
by SoftBank News Editors
