… to increase using robotic process automation and machine learning in … With 500 such machines across the country, TPBank expects to increase …

SoftBank Group Corp. said Wednesday its group net profit in the April-June period jumped more than threefold to a record ¥1.12 trillion ($10.6 billion) from a year earlier -- marking the best quarter for a Japanese firm since 2004 -- boosted by a special profit from selling part of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. SoftBank Group said its operating profit fell 3.7 percent to ¥688.82 billion in the three months that ended June 30 on sales of ¥2.34 trillion, up 2.8 percent on a consolidated basis. The company logged the largest group net profit on a quarterly basis among 400 major firms listed on bourses operated by Japan Exchange Group Inc. since Nomura Holdings Inc. started compiling such data in 2004. The investment giant said it booked a one-time gain of ¥1.22 trillion in the quarterly period following the completion of the partial sale of the stake in Alibaba. The company's profit was also boosted by gains from investments in technology startups made by its Vision Fund, through which SoftBank made investments in 81 companies as of the end of June. "It is remarkable for us to mark a (group net) profit of more than ¥1 trillion in a quarter for the first time," said Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son at a news conference in Tokyo.

Samsung Electronics said its profit rose almost 20 percent in 2016 despite nearly flat sales and the costly recall of the Note 7 smartphone. The company reported an annual net profit of 22.7 trillion won (US$19.5 billion), up 19.2 percent, on sales of 201.9 trillion won (US$173.5 billion), up just 0.6 percent. Samsung saw some of its biggest sales gains in memory chips on the back of strong demand from smartphone makers. The company is one of the world's biggest memory chip manufacturers. The mobile division saw sales fall 3 percent in 2016 to 97.8 trillion won.