UPDATE 1-DoCoMo, KDDI to see 10 pct oper profit growth-Nikkei

(Adds consensus estimates, background, share price)

TOKYO, April 23 (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc (9437.T) and KDDI Corp (9433.T), Japan's biggest cellphone operators, are likely to project operating profit growth of about 10 percent for the year to next March, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday.

The numbers, which both DoCoMo and KDDI spokesmen said were based on speculation, are in line with market consensus.

The carriers are cutting costs as their mobile businesses suffer from slowing subscriber growth in a saturated market, although they also face increasingly aggressive competition from No.3 operator Softbank (9984.T). [ID:nT74388]

Operating profit at NTT DoCoMo, the biggest operator with around half the market, is set to rise around 9 percent to just less than 850 billion yen ($8.3 billion) on lower depreciation costs, the paper said.

That still lags the consensus estimate of 683 billion yen from 17 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.

KDDI will likely forecast operating profit growth of 10 percent to around 440 billion yen and it may increase its annual dividend to 11,000 or 12,000 yen, up from an estimated 10,000 yen for the just completed year to March 2008, the paper said.

That lags the consensus from 18 analysts is for an operating profit of 447 billion yen.

Shares of KDDI rose 2.3 percent to 666,000 yen on Wednesday and NTT DoCoMo shares fell 1.3 percent to 155,000 yen, against the benchmark Nikkei average's .N225 0.7 percent rise. (Reporting by Edwina Gibbs and Mayumi Negishi) ($1=102.93 Yen)