SoftBank Profit Jumps 19% On Alibaba Sale

TOKYO, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th july,2016) - Japan's SoftBank said Thursday net profit jumped 19 percent in its fiscal first quarter owing to gains from selling some of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, offsetting losses at US mobile unit Sprint. The company, which also pointed to upbeat results in its domestic business, reported a 254.16 billion Yen ($2.4 billion) net profit in April-June. The profit largely came from booking some of its partial sale of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.

Softbank is looking to cut its stake in Alibaba from 32.2 percent to about 28 percent, which it expects to rake in about $10 billion. Alibaba -- often described as China's equivalent to eBay -- dominates online commerce in the country. SoftBank, which said its revenue in the quarter rose three percent to 2.13 trillion yen, surprised markets this month when it announced the whopping $32 billion purchase of British iPhone chip designer ARM Holdings.