Japanese online services giant Rakuten Group posted a net loss in 2023 for the 5th straight year.

The company, which reported earnings on Wednesday, said the loss is largely due to increased spending to set up base stations for its mobile phone business.

Rakuten says its net loss came in at almost 339.4 billion yen, or 2.26 billion dollars.

On the upside, the company reported sales at a record high of more than 2 trillion yen, or 13.8 billion dollars. That's a gain of 7.8 percent from the previous year. Online retailing and financial businesses booked solid revenues.

Rakuten says it will focus on business customers for its mobile phone unit to turn it profitable as soon as possible.
Rakuten Group CEO Mikitani Hiroshi says he is not particularly worried about the company's financial position and the firm has various options to raise funds as needed.

The company has 800 billion yen, or 5.3 billion dollars of corporate bonds coming due this year and next.

It issued the bonds to help fund the building of the mobile base stations.

Rakuten Group in December said it will sell a stake in its banking unit to cover some of the bond repayments this year.