Shares in Softbank rose on Thursday on news that Japan’s third largest mobile phone provider had been selected ahead of its larger rival NTT DoCoMo to sell Apple’s popular iPhone in Japan later this year.

Softbank said it had signed an agreement with Apple but did not give any further details. DoCoMo has also been looking to gain the rights to sell the iPhone but a spokesman at the Japanese company said on Wednesday, after the announcement, that it had not heard anything back from Apple. The US company has generally stuck with one carrier in each market.