Japan-based SoftBank reported net profit for the first nine months of its fiscal year surged on one-off gains, but revenue fell slightly due to a drop in domestic mobile turnover and forex fluctuations impacting Sprint’s top line.

Net income for the period ending 31 December doubled to JPR857 billion ($7.6 billion), due mainly to gains from the sale of Supercell in July, while consolidated revenue dropped 0.3 per cent year-on-year to JPY6.58 trillion.

The nine-month results were similar those reported for the April to September period.

SoftBank said lower net revenue at Sprint outweighed increases in net sales from its domestic telecoms operation and Yahoo Japan, as well as modest gains from the addition of ARM Holdings in early September. Sprint’s revenue increased 2.9 per cent in US dollar terms to $24.8 billion, but declined 9.4 per cent in yen terms due to the strong Japanese currency.

Its Japanese telecoms revenue grew 2.5 per cent to JPY2.4 trillion, with a 2 per cent drop in mobile service revenue (JPY1.43 trillion) offset by a 57 per cent jump in broadband revenue to JPY195 billion. Equipment sales rose 4.2 per cent to JPY 572 billion, while fixed-line turnover dropped 2.7 per cent to JPY200 billion.

In Japan it added 540,000 mobile subscribers year-on-year in the nine-month period to take its total user base to 32.2 million. Total ARPU fell 4 per cent to JPY4,530. Its FTTH subscribers increased 2.6 fold to 3.14 million.

While Sprint’s revenue was up in US dollar terms, it relied on an increase in device revenue to offset a decrease in telecoms service revenue.

However, the US operator showed some signs of strength. It cut the cost of sales by $1.6 billion to $12.1 billion in the recent period, and its adjusted EBITDA hit $7.3 billion. It also added 743,000 postpaid subscribers since March, and its total user base increased by 1.3 million to 59.5 million. Postpaid ARPU fell 4 per cent to $57.12.

Yahoo Japan’s turnover rose 42 per cent to JPY631 billion.