Line Posts Profit in First Report Since IPO
27 July 2016 - 8:30AM
Dow Jones News
TOKYO—Japan's Line Corp. posted a net profit of ¥ 2.56 billion
($24.5 million) in the first half of this year compared with a net
loss of ¥ 5.3 billion a year before, in its first quarterly
earnings report since the operator of the popular messaging app
raised $1.26 billion in the biggest technology initial public
offering so far this year.
Tokyo-based Line said Wednesday it posted an operating profit of
¥ 13.4 billion in the January-June period, compared with an
operating loss of ¥ 934 million a year earlier. Line posted a
revenue of ¥ 67 billion compared to ¥ 56 billion the same period
last year.
Line's earnings comes after the company made a strong debut in a
dual U.S.-Japan listing earlier this month, where it sold a total
40.25 million shares for an initial IPO price of $32.84 in New York
and ¥ 3,300 in Tokyo. The company's shares finished trading
Wednesday in Tokyo at ¥ 4,135.
Line is owned by South Korean internet company Naver Corp. and
makes most of its revenue from games, sales of digital stickers and
advertisements in Japan. It is also the dominant messaging app in
Thailand and Taiwan, and is No. 2 after BlackBerry Messenger in
Indonesia, where it is making a big marketing push.
But its monthly active user count has been plateauing in recent
quarters. Line said it now had 220 million users, up only 2 million
from the previous quarter. And while revenue rose to more than
(Yen)120 billion last year from about (Yen)40 billion in 2013, it
has posted net losses in two of the past three years.
To diversify, Line has been adding functions including
taxi-hailing, mobile payments, and music and video streaming,
though many of the features have yet to gain significant
traction.
Line has said it was looking to use funds raised from its
blockbuster IPO to build its presence in its four core markets by
focusing on localizing its many services. It won't push into the
U.S. or other new markets where messaging apps from Facebook Inc.
and others dominate, chief executive Takeshi Idezawa has said.
Write to Alexander Martin at alexander.martin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 27, 2016 03:15 ET (07:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.