SoftBank Vision Fund loses $7.2 billion on back of tech writedowns

SoftBank Group Corp.’s core Vision Fund arm posted a $7.2 billion quarterly loss as plunging startup valuations continue to hammer the company’s financial performance and forces it slow investments.

The Vision Fund segment lost 1.02 trillion yen in July-September, following a 2.33 trillion yen loss in the June quarter. Overall, the Japanese conglomerate logged net income of 3.03 trillion yen in the last quarter, buoyed by the disposal of a chunk of its Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. stake. The company said its total profit on its disposal of Alibaba shares was 5.37 trillion yen.

Billionaire founder Masayoshi Son turned his telecom company into the world’s biggest startup investor, aiming to repeat his early success in backing the Chinese e-commerce pioneer. But the effort has been plagued by missteps and, more recently, a sharp downturn in technology valuations.

SoftBank has been struggling with declines on public investments, with the Vision Fund recording net valuation losses totaling 1.19 trillion on its public holdings in the quarter just ended. Of those, China’s SenseTime Group Inc. accounted for 364 billion yen, while US food delivery firm Doordash Inc. accounted for 225 billion yen and Indonesian ride-hailing and e-commerce firm GoTo Group 108 billion yen, it said.

“We decided early on that we would strengthen our defenses and become more cautious on new investments,” Son said during an earnings results briefing. With interest rates and prices rising, the company will need to play defense “for a while,” he said.

Son said he would no longer helm quarterly results announcements in the near future, and would pass that role on to Chief Finanancial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto. Son will instead focus his time on taking its chip designer unit Arm Ltd. public, he said.

“Mr. Goto is more suitable than me for playing defense,” Son said. “Me, I’m an aggressive person, not a defensive person, and I’d like to concentrate on Arm for the time being.”