SoftBank group posts $13 billion in losses amid tech sell-off

Tokyo: SoftBank Group Corp reported on Thursday a net loss of 1.7 trillion yen ($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 ecommerce firm Coupang saw SoftBank's earnings surpass global heavyweights including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Coupang is trading 70% below its listing price and is one of a swathe of portfolio companies, including ridehailers Didi Global Inc and Grab Holdings, that tumbled during the January-March quarter.


The slump is casting a shadow on founder and chief executive officer (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 U.S. listing of chip designer Arm following the collapse of the sale to chipmaker Nvidia.