SoftBank is reaching to quarterly earnings but is revealing more Vision Fund discomfort

November 14, 2022: -Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp stated its foremost quarterly gain in three quarters, buoyed by the sale of a few of its stakes in China’s Alibaba, even as its vast Vision Fund posted one more heavy quarterly loss.

The sprawling Vision Fund, upending the world of technology with its vast bets on startups, will write down its investments in crypto exchange FTX to zero, SoftBank sources said, adding that those were below $100 million.

The difficulties at FTX mark the latest problem for Vision Fund, which has been overcome in quarters by a global tech rout, which prompts SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son to scale back fresh investments sharply.

Investment losses at flagship unit Vision Fund reached 1.38 trillion yen in the coming three months to September 30 as the price of its portfolio continues to slide.

Son said that this would be the previous time he would speak at a post-revenue briefing for the “foreseeable future”, which adds that he had no health issues. SoftBank is synonymous with Son, who, with his audacious bets on all things from Chinese tech to startups such as WeWork, has created a course far divergent from any other Japanese company.

At SoftBank, net profit came to 3.03 trillion yen in the second quarter of July-September. In the first quarter, the group posted a 3.16 trillion-yen loss.

Days following the revealing of the huge first-quarter loss, SoftBank stated that it would decrease its Alibaba Group Holdings stake to almost 15% from approximately 24% by settling prepaid forward contracts and book a calculated gain of 4.6 trillion yen in the next quarter.

In the quarter, the value of a few of SoftBank’s listed investments decreased, which include its stakes in U.S. real estate broker and Indonesia’s most prominent tech firm, GoTo, while South Korean e-commerce company Coupang was among the gainers.