Masayoshi Son, CEO of Japanese Internet, telecoms and investing giant, SoftBank, made former Google executive Nikesh Arora president and tipped him as a likely successor as the firm announced expectation-beating operating profits of $8.2 billion (￥982.7 billion) in Tokyo on Monday.
Arora joined SoftBank last summer and led the company's $250 million investment in Legendary Pictures after a deal to take over DreamWorks Animation failed to come to fruition.
Son, the 57-year-old founder, CEO and chairman of SoftBank, praised Arora's ability and pointed out that the vice chairman was also 10 years younger than him, talking to reporters at the earnings briefing.
However, Son, known for his indefatigable energy and drive added, "but I'm not going to retire soon."
SoftBank's profits for the fiscal year to March were down 9 percent versus the previous year, but were ahead of analysts and its own forecasts. Uncertainty around the outlook for U.S. mobile carrier Sprint, which it holds 80 percent of, stopped SoftBank issuing a forecast for the current year, according to the company.
Net profit for the year was $5.53 billion (￥668 billion), up 28 percent, on improved earnings at its mobile businesses and higher advertising revenue from its Yahoo Japan unit.
Although SoftBank has already been on a spending spree across Asia and the U.S., partly on the back of the huge gains it has made from its investment in Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba, Son said it was only the beginning.
"We expect more investments and acquisitions, even more so than now… the overseas market will be the main focus for SoftBank," said Son.