SoftBank posts 1.7t yen FY net loss

SOFTBANK Group reported on Thursday (May 12) a net loss of 1.7 trillion yen (S$18.3 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, 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.

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To raise cash, SoftBank is targeting a US listing of chip designer Arm following the collapse of the sale to chipmaker Nvidia. REUTERS