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| SoftBank loses $10 billion |
When the value of government bonds fell sharply, SoftBank posted a record loss in its Vision Fund division.
For the three months ended September 3, the division lost 825.1 billion yen ($7.3 billion), outpacing the company's 788.6 billion yen loss in the pandemic-related amortization.
Overall, the Tokyo-based company posted a net loss of 397.9 billion yen during the period.
Since its establishment in 2017, the Vision Fund division has made an unstable contribution to profit and loss. The first slowdown began in 2019 with the disappointing public appearance of Uber and the collapse of WeWork, followed by the impact of the coronavirus.
But thanks to South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang, US fast-food company DoorDash and Chinese real estate platform KE Holdings, a surge in global tech stocks pushed Vision Fund earnings to a new record for three straight quarters.
The decline in the value of some of these companies and the crackdown by Chinese regulators on the technology sector has once again put pressure on business development.
The total unrealized losses of the companies included in the two Vision Funds managed by SoftBank during the quarter amounted to $17.7 billion.
Coupang caused losses of $6.7 billion. Two quarters ago, the South Korean e-commerce company reported its best $24.5 billion return for its Vision Fund since Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba went public.
After Chinese regulators launched attacks on the tech industry, SoftBank's portfolio of Chinese startups was hit particularly hard.
Diddy appeared late last quarter, one of the biggest American shows of the past decade, losing $6.1 billion in the quarter. Startup Full Truck Alliance lost $1.2 billion.
Vision Fund loses $10 billion
The market value of KE Holdings, which operates online real estate service Beike, fell by $2.2 billion.
Little-known Chinese startup SoftBank went public in August 2020 with an unrealized gain of $5.1 billion, pushing Vision Fund earnings to an all-time high this quarter.
Although the company has not become a direct target of the regulators. But the stock price is down more than 70% from its high and below its IPO price.
Total portfolio losses offset gains of 455.9 billion yen as the Japanese company capitalized on some of its more successful investments.
SoftBank sold $2.2 billion in DoorDash stock in August. The sale of Coupang shares in September raised nearly $1.69 billion.
The company has also significantly reduced its stock and options trading platform. He completely liquidated his shares in Amazon, PayPal, and TSMC.
SoftBank has a total of $5 billion in highly liquid publicly traded shares, up from $13.6 billion at the end of the previous quarter.
The Japanese technology giant has announced that it will buy back nearly 15% of its shares. He spent about 1,000 billion yen ($9 billion) on this. That's on top of the $2.5 trillion he spent on record acquisitions in May.
The fund's strengths include its investment portfolio in India, including joint carrier Ola and logistics firm Delhivery.
The company returned $9.8 billion to investors. She is currently focusing on investing through the $40 billion Vision II fund. The second fund was investing $33.5 billion in 157 startups at the end of the quarter.