SoftBank posted a loss as the Vision Fund remains in the red for the fourth quarter in a row
07 February, 2023 4:37 PMSoftBank Group Corp posted a net loss for October to December on Tuesday, with its investment giant Vision Fund remaining in the red for a fourth straight quarter as valuations of technology portfolios were yet to recover from a global selloff.
The Vision fund's investment loss was 730.36 billion yen ($5.52 billion) in the latest quarter, on top of a combined loss of 7.3 trillion yen in the first nine months of 2022.
At SoftBank alone, the net loss was 783.42 billion yen, compared with a profit of 29.05 billion yen a year earlier.
The October-to-December net loss was a sharp turnaround from the 3 trillion yen profit SoftBank reported for the July-to-September period, when its quarterly earnings were boosted by the reduction of part of its stake in China's Alibaba Group Holding.
SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son has invested heavily in artificial intelligence and other high-tech startups through his Vision Fund unit in recent years, helping the company post record profits for the year to March 2021.
Startup investments by SoftBank's Vision Fund unit fell below $350 million in the quarter just ended, a person familiar with the matter said. Overall, this segment has invested more than $144 billion over five and a half years, averaging more than $6 billion per quarter.
SoftBank's Vision Funds have transformed the venture capital ecosystem, funneling billions of dollars into hundreds of startups and forcing other investors to match their big bets.
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