Japan's SoftBank books hefty Vision Fund loss but returns to quarterly profit

Japan's SoftBank Group Corp announced a hefty loss at its Vision Fund investment arm for the third straight quarter, even as the company itself posted its first quarterly profit in as many quarters.

Investment losses at the Japanese tech firm's flagship Vision Fund unit totalled 1.38 trillion yen ($9.75 billion) in the three months to September 30, as the value of its portfolio continued to slide.

Net profit at SoftBank itself came to 3.03 trillion yen in the July-September second quarter, a sharp turnaround from a 3.16 trillion yen loss in the previous quarter.


Vision Fund upended the world of venture capital with splashy bets on startups, but it has been hammered in recent quarters by a global tech rout, prompting SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son to sharply scale back fresh investments.

Days after unveiling a massive first-quarter loss, SoftBank said it would reduce its Alibaba Group Holdings stake to around 15% from around 24% by settling prepaid forward contracts and book an estimated gain of 4.6 trillion yen in the second quarter.

In the latest quarter the value of some of SoftBank's listed investments fell including Indonesia's biggest tech firm GoTo and U.S. real estate broker Compass, while South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang was among the gainers.

($1 = 141.5400 yen)