SoftBank of Japan bounces back to Q2 profitability, though the Vision Fund continues to suffer
- ByStartupStory | November 11, 2022
SoftBank Group Corp. of Japan announced its first quarterly profit in three quarters, boosted by the sale of a portion of its stake in China’s Alibaba, despite its huge Vision Fund posting another big quarterly loss. The vast Vision Fund, which upended the world of technology with its massive bets on startups, will also write down its interests in failing cryptocurrency exchange FTX to zero, according to a source close to SoftBank, who added that they were less than $100 million. The difficulties at FTX are the latest setback for Vision Fund, which has been battered in recent quarters by a worldwide tech slump, causing SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to drastically reduce new investments. Investment losses at the flag-ship unit Vision Fund amounted to 1.38 trillion yen ($9.75 billion) in the three months ending September 30, as the portfolio’s value continued to decline.
Son told a briefing that this would be his last post-earnings briefing for the “foreseeable future,” adding that he was in good health. SoftBank is synonymous with Son, who has established a route widely different from that of any other Japanese organization with his ambitious bets on everything from Chinese tech to startups like WeWork. SoftBank’s net profit in the July-September second quarter was 3.03 trillion yen. The company lost 3.16 trillion yen in the first quarter. Days after revealing the enormous first-quarter loss, SoftBank announced that it would cut its shareholding in Alibaba Group Holdings to roughly 15% from around 24% by resolving prepaid forward contracts and post a 4.6 trillion yen profit in the second quarter. SoftBank’s listed investments, including its shares in US real estate broker Compass and Indonesia’s largest digital firm, GoTo, lost value in the most recent quarter, while South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang gained.
Follow Startup Story
Related Posts
