SoftBank posts US$13 billion FY net loss
SoftBank's logo is pictured at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, Feb 4, 2021. (File photo: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
TOKYO: SoftBank Group reported on Thursday (May 12) a net loss of 1.7 trillion yen (US$13.12 billion) for the year ended in March as the tech investor faces a sliding tech portfolio.
The result compared with a record 4.99 trillion yen profit a year earlier, when the boost from the listing of South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang saw SoftBank's earnings surpass global heavyweights including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
Coupang is trading 70 per cent below its listing price and is one of a swathe of portfolio companies, including ridehailers Didi Global and Grab Holdings, that tumbled during the January-March quarter.
The slump is casting a shadow on founder and CEO Masayoshi Son's strategy of heavy concentration in high-growth stocks increasingly out of favour with investors as interest rates rise.
SoftBank's Vision Fund unit reported a 2.97 trillion yen investment loss in the January-March quarter, according to Reuters calculations.
The 64-year-old billionaire has described SoftBank as a goose laying golden eggs but the pace of listings has slowed with one notable recent exception, Indonesia's GoTo, sliding since going public last month.
To raise cash SoftBank is targeting a US listing of chip designer Arm following the collapse of the sale to chipmaker Nvidia.
