KDDI Q3 revenues flatline, but net income up

Japan’s KDDI (au) has published its financial results for its fiscal third quarter ending 31 December 2021, with operating revenue flatlining at JPY1.389 trillion (USD12.05 billion), compared to JPY1.387 trillion in the corresponding year-ago quarter, although net profit attributable to shareholders climbed to JPY192.751 billion from JPY175.826 billion. Japan’s second largest mobile carrier reported EBITDA of JPY478.392 billion, up from JPY467.926 billion year-on-year, and operating income improved to JPY301.496 billion from JPY282.279; operating margin was 21.7%, up 1.3pp y-o-y. Third-quarter CAPEX stood at JPY169.209 billion, up from JPY157.403 billion y-o-y.

The company noted that at end-December 2021 it had a total of 6.2 million 5G au smartphone users on its books, a figure it aims to increase to 8.0 million by the end of the current fiscal year (31 March 2022). However, due to 5G promotions and changes in its brand composition, ‘multi-brands communications’ ARPU dipped to JPY4,200 in the period under review, compared to JPY4,270 the previous quarter and JPY4,440 in the third quarter ended 31 December 2020. In total, mobile au subscriptions hit 61.429 million by the end of the period under review, up a net 1.307 million on an annualised basis, as fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) subscriptions climbed to 4.986 million from 4.823 million previously.

Commenting on the group’s results, corporate director Shinichi Muramoto said: ‘[KDDI’s] first to third quarter results show steady progress. Promotion of 5G and multi-brand strategy resulted in net increase of Group ID. Growth Fields is progressing steadily and profit is expected to increase significantly in the fourth quarter. Regarding topics, we are driving forward, entertainment in the 5G era with video content and Metaverse, contributing to the resolution of social issues through new initiatives in the mobility field, promoting NEXT Core Business (NYSE:DX) by leveraging the strength of global businesses, including connected cars and data centres, and expanding our share buyback facility by JPY50 billion. We promoted new initiatives in addition to multi-brand strategy.’