For the second quarter in a row, SoftBank is deeply in the red, with more than 23 billion US dollars even more than expected. The future fund, consisting of a portfolio of more than 300 stock packages and shares in companies primarily from the technology sector, is struggling.
Record loss for the Japanese tech heavyweight
It's a record loss: SoftBank had to report 3.16 trillion yen as a negative value after the loss in the previous quarter was already a high 2.1 trillion yen lay. A year ago, SoftBank posted a profit of 762 billion yen, primarily thanks to the two Vision Funds. So the drop in profit within one year is almost 4 trillion yen, equivalent to almost 30 billion US dollars and currently almost the same amount in euros.
The two vision funds showed the problems in the current market with a combined loss of over 21 billion euros. The start-ups alone were corrected downwards in value by more than eight billion euros, but well-known giants such as Klarna, in which SoftBank only invested heavily in 2021, had recently lost up to 85 percent in value and were deep in SoftBank's books Trenches torn.
There were also profits of 37 billion euros
Adjusted investments and no longer quite such a loose wallet should help in the future to bring SoftBank back to the profit lane. Last year was an example of how well this can work. At the beginning of 2021, more than 5 trillion yen or almost 37 billion euros were still earned with the technology values - so the current big case also has a corresponding counterpoint.
The eyes for the near future are aimed, among other things, at the IPO of Arm. After the failed takeover by Nvidia, for which SoftBank was even able to collect a fine of 1.25 billion US dollars, SoftBank is waiting for a suitable time. The signs in the market are currently rather unfavorable, after all one wants to exit the business with a profit. In 2016, SoftBank bought Arm for the equivalent of $32 billion.