Apr. 30--TOKYO -- Softbank Corp. said Thursday its group operating profit for fiscal 2008 rose 10.7 percent from the previous year to a record high of 359.12 billion yen and gave an upbeat outlook for fiscal 2009 with an eye to raising its dividend on brisk growth in mobile phone subscriptions.

The operating profit for the year ended March 31 rewrote the record for the fourth straight year.

The Internet conglomerate attributed the operating profit gain to robust earnings from its Internet and fixed-line telecommunications services as well as the mobile phone service.

Its group net profit in the year ended March 31, meanwhile, dropped 60.3 percent to 43.17 billion yen on sales of 2.67 trillion yen, down 3.7 percent. The net profit plunge was traced to a special loss of 75 billion yen on debt assumption and an asset impairment loss of 28.9 billion yen as well as a big investment gain from an initial public offering of a Chinese affiliate in the previous year.

Its pretax profit dropped 12.7 percent to 225.66 billion yen following the previous year's investment gain.

Despite some dismal figures, the overall tone of the third-largest Japanese mobile phone carrier's earnings report was upbeat given the firm's view that customers are likely to continue using its mobile phone service.

Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo, Softbank President Masayoshi Son said, "I'm confident our business is going smoothly in that we'll be able to meet our initial forecast of operating profit of 420 billion yen for fiscal 2009." The envisioned operating profit for the current business year ending next March represents a 17 percent increase, the company said.

Son also said there will be a drastic increase in its dividend for fiscal 2009 to 5.0 yen per share from 2.5 yen in the previous year.

He also unveiled a plan to further raise its dividend payout in fiscal 2011.

Softbank said its mobile phone unit Softbank Mobile Corp. logged the biggest net subscriber growth among mobile phone carriers in Japan in fiscal 2008 for the second consecutive year, outperforming bigger rivals NTT Docomo Inc. and KDDI Corp.

The net growth came to 2,046,700 subscriptions, up 11 percent, topping 2 million subscriptions for the second straight year.

-----

To see more of Kyodo News International, go to http://www.kyodonews.com

Copyright (c) 2009, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

SFTBF, 9984, DCM, 9437, 9433,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.