quarterly report
Softbank with huge loss due to stock market slide
The Japanese group Softbank reports large quarterly losses. photo
© Koji Sasahara/AP/dpa
One of the largest tech investors in the world, the Japanese company Softbank, has suffered severe losses.
The slump in tech stocks has given Japanese group Softbank a huge quarterly loss. The bottom line is that red numbers of 3.16 trillion yen (almost 23 billion euros) accumulated in the balance sheet. The triggers included discounts on holdings in the e-commerce platform Coupang and the food delivery service DoorDash.
Founder and boss Masayoshi Son had made the company one of the largest tech investors worldwide through the investment fund Vision Fund, among other things. In the past, he burned his fingers, among other things, when investing billions in the office real estate company WeWork.
In the first business quarter, which ended at the end of June, Softbank posted a loss of around 293.4 billion yen (a good 2.1 billion euros) on its share in Coupang alone. The holdings in DoorDash and the software company SenseTime posted losses of 220.7 billion yen (1.6 billion euros) and 235.9 billion yen (a good 1.7 billion euros) respectively. In the past, Softbank’s shares had brought high book profits due to rising prices. Softbank estimated the loss due to unfavorable exchange rates at 820 billion yen (around 5.97 billion euros) on Monday.
Softbank invests in various companies
Softbank is also an investor in many unlisted companies such as payment service Klarna or Bytedance, the Chinese owner of video app Tiktok. There are also declines: In the most recent financing round, Klarna had to accept a discount of 85 percent on the overall rating compared to the previous cash injection just a year ago.
Softbank is currently preparing the IPO of the chip designer Arm, whose semiconductor architecture is used in practically all smartphones and tablet computers. Softbank acquired Arm in 2016 for around $32 billion. In the meantime, the sale to the chip group Nvidia was planned, but this failed due to concerns from competition watchdogs. However, market conditions are currently unfavorable for a large share placement.