SoftBank slips to red as Vision Fund posts $4.2b in losses

Photo credit: SoftBank

SoftBank Group has lost 629.4 billion yen (US$4.2 billion) from its Vision Funds for the first half of its 2023 financial year as the value of its portfolio companies continues to decrease.

Of the amount, Vision Fund 1 – which invested in Arm, ByteDance, and Grab – contributed US$1.7 billion in losses. Vision Fund 2 – whose portfolio includes eFishery, Flipkart, and Revolut – incurred US$2.5 billion.

The US$4.2 billion figure does not include the over US$300 million that SoftBank earned from its Latin American and other investments. It also does not count gains associated with Vision Fund’s investments in SoftBank’s subsidiaries.

All in all, the Japanese investment firm reported a US$5.2 billion loss for the second quarter of FY 2023, down from the US$20.4 billion in net income it recorded in Q2 2022.

It has been an eventful few couple months for SoftBank. Arm went public in September at US$51 per share, slightly less than SoftBank’s initial valuation goal.

Yesterday, Arm’s shares closed at US$54.40 apiece, giving it a market value of over US$55.8 billion.

On the other hand, WeWork, the co-working startup SoftBank has invested US$16 billion in since 2017, has filed for bankruptcy in the US and Canada this month. The Financial Times reported that in the days leading to the bankruptcy filing, SoftBank had to pay US$1.5 billion to several WeWork lenders.

See also: Plotting out SoftBank’s 2023 India roadmap

Currency converted from Japanese yen to US dollar: US$1 = 151 yen.