SoftBank Corp’s new president and CEO Junichi Miyakawa (pictured) outlined an aggressive strategy to speed a shift beyond core telecoms services, earmarking JPY40 billion ($367.8 million) to JPY50 billion a year to invest in new businesses with an eye to supporting its payment brand PayPay and messaging app Line.

The operator earlier today (11 May) demonstrated its appetite for investments outside of Japan with plans to acquire a 23 per cent stake in Axiata Digital Advertising.

Miyakawa noted the push to position the company in new business areas is imperative as it forecasts a reduction of up to JPY70 billion in mobile pricing in fiscal 2021, the year to end-March 2022.

He believes any reduction in mobile profitability can be offset by growth in new business areas, adding its fiscal 2021 guidance targets net income rising 2 per cent to JPY500 billion and revenue increasing 6 per cent to JPY5.5 trillion.

Q4 results
Net profit in fiscal Q4 2020 (to end-March) soared 57.6 per cent year-on-year to JPY57.5 billion, with revenue rising 12.5 per cent JPY1.4 trillion.

Consumer service revenue increased 2.1 per cent to JPY410.8 billion and equipment sales 21.6 per cent to JPY157.8 billion.

Mobile subscribers increased by 1.4 million to 37.9 million: ARPU fell 1.6 per cent to JPY4,260.

Enterprise sales increased 9.5 per cent to JPY183.9 billion, its distribution business grew 27.7 per cent to JPY151.6 billion, and Yahoo Japan 13.2 per cent to JPY332 billion.

The operator offered little detail on 5G adoption, stating only it will launch standalone in fiscal 2021 and aims to have 90 per cent population coverage by early 2022.

Miyakawa also said the company aims to become carbon neutral by 2030.