TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile carrier in Japan, is reportedly going to post a 1 trillion yen (US$7.5 billion) special loss in its fiscal 2001 financial results mainly from an evaluation loss from its overseas investments.
Due to the huge special loss, NTT DoCoMo is reportedly going to post a net loss for the full year, which will end at the end of March 2002. If this happens, it will be the first time the mobile carrier has reported a net loss since it was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1998.
Keiji Tachikawa, president of NTT DoCoMo, on Thursday said the firm is considering posting the special loss, but nothing particular has been decided yet.
As part of its aggressive overseas strategies, NTT DoCoMo has invested a total of 1.8 trillion yen (US$13.6 billion) in five major mobile carriers in the world during the past few years.
NTT DoCoMo invested 1.19 trillion yen (US$8.9 billion) into U.S. operator AT&T Wireless. However the stock price of AT&T dropped from DoCoMo’s book value of US$22 to about US$8. According to some news reports on Thursday, finding out that the stock price of AT&T Wireless will not immediately recover from its current level, DoCoMo decided to report a 700 billion yen (US$5.3 billion) valuation loss from the investment.
According to several Japanese press reports, DoCoMo is also going to post a 100 billion yen (US$754 million) valuation loss from its investment in KPN Mobile and an additional several tens of billion yen loss from its investment in Taiwan’s KG Telecom.
In its first half-year business result report, NTT DoCoMo reported a 260 billion yen (US$2 billion) special loss from its investment in KPN Mobile.
