Japan's Softbank posts 8 pct gain in quarterly profit

TOKYO Aug 5 (Reuters) - Softbank Corp (9984.T), Japan's third-biggest mobile phone operator, reported on Tuesday an 8 percent gain in quarterly profit, helped by a reduction in handset subsidies.

Softbank, which trails NTT DoCoMo (9437.T) and KDDI (9433.T) in Japan's mobile phone market, logged a group operating profit of 85.1 billion yen ($786.5 million) in the three months ended June, against 78.7 billion yen a year earlier.

The company does not provide an earnings outlook, but 13 analysts on average forecast a 352 billion yen profit for the year to March.

Despite sluggish income from calling fees, profits at Softbank were supported by lower handset subsidies as more customers signed up for instalment payment plans that normally take a year or two to pay off the cost of handsets.

Shares in Softbank slipped 0.9 percent in the April-June quarter, against a 4.1 percent rise in the Tokyo Stock Exchange's information and communication subindex .ICOMS.T. (Reporting by Sachi Izumi)