Japan’s Softbank Group likely to make $1.5 billion quarterly profit

Japan’s SoftBank Group is set to make a quarterly net profit of 234 billion yen ($1.54 billion) on Wednesday as shares in its telecommunications holdings edge up and the post-listing performance of Swiggy is seen boosting the value of its portfolio of unlisted technology startups.

Analysts are divided, however, on whether the spate of artificial intelligence-related investments SoftBank has announced in recent weeks will help or hurt the Japanese technology investment conglomerate’s bottom line.