Japan’s SoftBank returns to quarterly revenue however unveils extra Imaginative and prescient Fund ache By Reuters

By Kiyoshi Takenaka

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp reported its first quarterly revenue in three quarters, buoyed by the sale of a few of its stake in China’s Alibaba (NYSE:) at the same time as its large Imaginative and prescient Fund posted one other heavy quarterly loss.

The sprawling Imaginative and prescient Fund, which upended the world of expertise with its massive bets on startups, can even write down its investments in troubled crypto change FTX to zero, a supply near SoftBank stated, including that these have been lower than $100 million.

The issues at FTX mark the most recent problem for Imaginative and prescient Fund, which has been hammered in latest quarters by a world tech rout, prompting SoftBank Chief Government Masayoshi Son to sharply reduce recent investments.

Funding losses at flagship unit Imaginative and prescient Fund have been 1.38 trillion yen ($9.75 billion) within the three months to September 30 as the worth of its portfolio continued to slip.

Son advised a briefing that this may be the final time he would communicate at a post-earnings briefing for the “foreseeable future”, including that he had no well being points. SoftBank itself is synonymous with Son, who together with his audacious bets on all the pieces from Chinese language tech to startups like WeWork has charted a course far divergent from that of another Japanese firm.

At SoftBank itself, internet revenue got here to three.03 trillion yen within the July-September second quarter. Within the first quarter, the group had posted a 3.16 trillion yen loss.

Days after unveiling the large first-quarter loss, SoftBank stated it might scale back its Alibaba Group Holdings stake to round 15% from round 24% by settling pay as you go ahead contracts and e book an estimated achieve of 4.6 trillion yen within the second quarter.

Within the newest quarter the worth of a few of SoftBank’s listed investments fell, together with its stakes in U.S. actual property dealer Compass and Indonesia’s greatest tech agency, GoTo, whereas South Korean e-commerce agency Coupang was among the many gainers.

($1 = 141.5400 yen)