Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japan’s former phone monopoly, plans to buy back as much as 350 billion yen ($3.2 billion) of its shares from the government, its largest stake holder.

Japan’s former telephone monopoly will buy as much as 3.2 percent of its shares in the year ending March 2017, the company said Friday in a statement. The company also plans to raise its annual dividend to 120 yen a share this fiscal year, from 110 yen for the previous 12 months.

The parent of NTT Docomo Inc., the country’s biggest wireless provider, forecast record net income for the year ending March 2017 and said it would like the mobile services unit to introduce another round of price plans this year. The government has been asking mobile phone carriers to simplify billing and offer plans more suited to light and long-term users.

NTT profit will probably rise about 2 percent to a record 750 billion yen this fiscal year, the company projected Friday, compared with the 756 billion yen average of analyst estimates.

The carrier raised its target for cost reductions to at least 800 billion yen from the level in fiscal year 2014, from the previous goal of 600 billion yen in cuts, according to a presentation on the company’s website Friday.

Sales will probably be 11.45 trillion yen, compared with the average analyst estimate for 11.64 trillion yen.

Source:
courtesy of BLOOMBERG

by Grace Huang

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