SoftBank’s Vision Fund has recorded a loss of ¥4.3tn ($32bn) for the fiscal year ending on Mar. 31, 2021, compared to a loss of ¥2.55tn in the same period a year ago. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index declined by 11% over SoftBank’s fiscal year, despite a rally in tech stocks. SoftBank’s overall investment losses at its Vision Funds amounted to ¥5.28tn versus ¥3.43tn a year before. SoftBank’s net loss for the fiscal year was ¥970.14bn, narrower than the loss of ¥1.7tn in the same period a year ago. SoftBank’s CFO, Yoshimitsu Goto, said that SoftBank has a number of companies valued at a combined $37bn that are ready to go public, but he didn’t name them.
SoftBank has been offloading some of its shares in Alibaba through a derivative called a forward contract, after founder Masayoshi Son made his fortune with an early investment in the company more than two decades ago. SoftBank has narrowed its overall losses through sales of shares in T-Mobile and Alibaba. SoftBank has been exiting some of its highest-profile investments to raise cash over the past year, including selling its remaining stake in Uber. However, SoftBank logged losses in areas including the share prices of Chinese artificial intelligence firm SenseTime and Indonesian ride-hailing and e-commerce company GoTo, despite gains from exiting investments in high-profile companies like Uber.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund invests in high-growth stocks, which have faced headwinds from rising interest rates globally causing investors to sell out of riskier equities such as tech. SoftBank’s Vision Funds recorded investment losses of ¥236.8bn in the fiscal fourth quarter from January to March, compared to the losses of ¥730.3bn in the previous quarter. Rajeev Misra, SoftBank’s key ally and top executive, stepped back from some of his roles at the company amid mounting losses. Misra was instrumental in the early days of the Vision Fund, which was launched in 2017.
SoftBank’s CFO has said that it has been an “unstable” year marked by geopolitical risks and financial system instability, citing the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and issues at Credit Suisse. SoftBank made $3.14bn in new or follow-on investments in its fiscal year, down from $44.26bn in the same period of a year prior. Artificial intelligence technology is making “dramatic progress” with the company, weighing up whether to stay in defense mode. SoftBank is looking toward the initial public offering of British semiconductor firm Arm, which is owned by SoftBank, as a way to shore up the Japanese firm’s balance sheet and perhaps give it more money to make new investments. Arm posted sales of ¥381.7bn in the fiscal year, up more than 27% year-on-year. The company’s pre-tax income rose 18% year-on-year to ¥48.6bn.
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