TOKYO (Feb 14): Japan's Rakuten Group reported on Wednesday a smaller fourth-quarter loss, helped by a stronger performance by its e-commerce and fintech businesses but the result fell short of expectations.

The operating loss of ¥33.3 billion (RM1 billion) was an improvement on a ¥54 billion loss in the third quarter and less than half of the loss logged in the same period a year earlier.

But it still marked Rakuten's 14th consecutive quarter in the red and was bigger than an average estimate of a ¥28 billion loss drawn from nine analysts in an LSEG poll.

Stubborn losses at its mobile unit have made it more challenging for Rakuten to meet its financial obligations. The mobile unit logged a ¥71 billion loss.

Rakuten has ¥1.8 trillion in outstanding debt, according to LSEG data.

Last month Rakuten took to refinancing around US$1.75 billion of US dollar-denominated bonds that were due for redemption this year and Rakuten has recently sold off portions of its banking and securities arms to generate cash.

CFO Kenji Hirose told a briefing that the group now has enough liquidity to meet all of its debt redemptions this year and would continue its policy of prioritising non-interest bearing financing to reduce its debt burden.