Japan Telecom Co. on Wednesday reported 385.3 billion yen in unconsolidated sales for the business year that ended March 31, down 1.7 percent from the previous year.
The telecom carrier also posted 23.3 billion yen in pretax profit, down 32.7 percent. The poor performance resulted mainly from rate cuts for both domestic and international phone calls amid the ongoing price competition among carriers.
The company's net profit declined 49.2 percent to 7.9 billion yen, attributed to a special loss of 6.6 billion yen after the carrier gave up assets to former Astel Tokyo Co., a personal handy-phone carrier that merged with Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co. on April 1. The carrier expects the fall in sales to continue in the current business year because of further price cutting and a loss in its Internet service business.
On a consolidated basis, the carrier reported 428.1 billion yen in sales, up 4 percent from the previous year, thanks to a strong performance in the cellular phone business. However, its net profit dropped 25.7 percent to 6 billion yen.
Japan Telecom recently agreed to form a capital partnership with AT&T Corp. and British Telecommunications PLC. The Japanese carrier will take on Clive Ansell, president of BT Japan, and Darryl Green, president of AT&T Japan, as advisers beginning from June 1.