Japan's number two telecom operator KDDI said Monday its net profit grew 20 percent in the year ended in March despite losses of more than 200 million dollars from a powerful quake and tsunami.

KDDI Corp.'s net profit came to 255.12 billion yen (3.1 billion dollars) in the year to March, up 19.9 percent from the previous year, although the March 11 disaster caused special losses of 17.6 billion yen (214 million dollars).

Lower corporate taxes helped offset losses from the disaster and from impaired assets, the company said.

Its net profit for the January-March fourth quarter jumped to 52.48 billion yen from 118 million yen a year earlier due to the absence of hefty restructuring costs that weighed on the year-earlier earnings figure.

Operating profit for the full year rose 6.3 percent to 471.91 billion yen due to lower costs in fixed-line and cellphone businesses. Revenue edged down 0.2 percent to 3.43 trillion yen as income from cellphones shrank.

For the year to March 2012, KDDI expects net profit to fall 2.0 percent to 250 billion yen. Operating profit is forecast to rise 0.7 percent to 475 billion yen on revenue of 3.46 trillion yen, also up 0.7 percent.

KDDI said it would step up marketing of smartphones for the group's future growth. It aims to boost smartphone sales from 1.09 million units in the last year to four million, or 33 percent of total handset sales, in the year ahead.