TOKYO: Z Holdings Corp., the parent of Yahoo Japan Corp. and messaging app giant Line Corp., has reported brisk revenue growth in fiscal 2020 thanks to stay-home demand amid the novel coronavirus crisis.

Consolidated revenue for the year through last month rose 14.5 percent from the previous year to 1,205,846 million yen, boosted by strong online shopping demand, Z Holdings said Wednesday.

The company made Line a wholly owned subsidiary for business integration March 1. The move pushed up the revenue by 24.9 billion yen.

Operating profit increased 6.5 percent to 162,125 million yen.

The value of goods and services sold via the Z Holdings group’s e-commerce platforms shot up 24.4 percent to 3.22 trillion yen.

The annual number of financial settlements using the PayPay smartphone payment service jumped 2.5-fold to more than 2 billion times.

But Z Holdings saw its consolidated net profit fall 14.1 percent to 70,145 million yen after enjoying a strong boost a year before thanks to a profit from a change in its shareholdings in PayPay Corp.

For the current year ending in March 2022, the holding company forecasts revenue of 1.52 trillion to 1.57 trillion yen.

The growth will be supported by positive effects from the business integration with Line and the launch of new services including those using artificial intelligence technology, officials said.

Z Holdings President Kentaro Kawabe made an apology after Line received administrative guidance for its inappropriate management of user information.

JIJI Press