On August 6, 2024, SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) President & CEO Junichi Miyakawa presented earnings results for the first quarter (April - June 2024, Q1) of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025 (FY2024). At the press conference held in Tokyo, Miyakawa reviewed SoftBank’s consolidated results, reporting that revenue (1535.7 billion JPY), operating income (303.9 billion JPY), and net income (162.5 billion JPY) increased year-on-year (YoY) by 7%, 23% and 11%, respectively. On a Q1 standalone basis, revenue and operating income reached record highs.
All business segments recorded YoY increases, both in terms of revenue and operating income, and the Financial Business segment achieved profitability for the first time since PayPay was consolidated in FY2022.
Making good progress toward achieving full-year forecast
Comparing SoftBank’s Q1 performance against the full-year forecasts for FY2024, Miyakawa noted that better-than-expected progress is being made, with 25% of revenue, 34% of operating income and 33% of net income already achieved. He added that SoftBank is on track to realize its Long-term Vision ahead of schedule.
Consumer segment sees continued increase in mobile revenue
Reviewing SoftBank’s business segments in detail, Miyakawa noted that Q1 revenue for the Consumer segment was 681.7 billion JPY, up 2% YoY, with mobile revenue continuing to see YoY quarterly increases.
He added that with SoftBank’s strategic alliance with Perplexity announced in June, mobile customers can now experience one way of using AI with a free one-year subscription to the “Perplexity Pro” AI answer engine, an offer exclusive to SoftBank customers in Japan.
The Enterprise segment registered 215.6 billion JPY of revenue in Q1 FY2024, a 10% increase YoY, driven by steady growth in business solutions, and a 3% increase in operating income YoY. The Media & EC segment, which incorporates LY Corporation (the operator of LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN services), also saw growth in revenue and operating income, with YoY increases of 6% and 74%, respectively. When excluding one-time factors, Media & EC operating income was up 20% YoY.
PayPay achieves positive operating income for first time on quarterly basis
In the Financial Business segment, Q1 FY2024 revenue was up by 20% YoY at 63.1 billion JPY and operating income reached 5.7 billion JPY, a major improvement compared to the operating loss of 1.8 billion JPY registered in the previous fiscal year. The increase was driven by improved performance at PayPay, which registered positive operating income for the first time on a quarterly basis.
Making progress on next-generation social infrastructure initiatives
Toward the end of his presentation, Miyakawa highlighted progress being made on building out next-generation social infrastructure for the AI era. He explained that, as part of this initiative, SoftBank signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sharp Corporation in June to build a large-scale AI data center, or “Brain DataCenter,” that utilizes the existing facilities of the Sharp Sakai Plant, including its buildings, electric power supply and cooling systems, to enable a quick buildout.
In closing, Miyakawa noted that SoftBank is strengthening its financial foundation so it can become a market leader in generative AI, and cited a recent shelf registration to issue a second series of bond-type class shares as one key initiative.
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Presentation material (PDF: 9.55MB/42 pages) Supplementary materials: Overview of SoftBank (PDF: 1.83MB/22 pages) |
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(Posted on August 6, 2024)
by SoftBank News Editors
