SoftBank sinks into $5.93-billion loss in Dec quarter, Vision Fund loses $5.52 billion

Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank went back into the red after it recorded ¥783.4 billion ($5.93 billion) loss in the December quarter, while its sprawling investment vehicle Vision Fund registered a loss of ¥730.36 billion ($5.52 billion).

Its investments were impacted downward revisions of portfolio company performance amid a weak macro outlook, especially for tech companies. At a time when the sector is grappling with a funding crunch, about 94 percent of the Japanese investor's portfolio companies have a cash runway of 12 months.

Over the last 12 months, its portfolio companies have attracted additional funding of more than $16 billion of capital raised across 87 funding rounds. More importantly, SoftBank is looking at a string of exits via public listings of its late-stage portfolio companies which now constitute 70 percent of its investments.

However, the Japanese tech investor's portfolio of publicly listed companies has suffered in the last one year amid a broader tech stock rout. It is sitting on losses of $500 million for its $1 billion investment in Paytm, $3.1 billion loss for its $3.2 billion investment in WeWork, $9 billion loss for its $12 billion investment in Didi, among others.

Some of its profitable investments as of the December quarter are Coupang where it is sitting on gains of $4.2 billion, DoorDash where its investment of $200 million has yielded gains of $800 million and Delhivery where it is sitting on gains of $200 million for an investment of $300 million.

In the previous quarter, SoftBank had seen profit for the first time in three quarters as the Japanese investment conglomerate sold a significant stake in its crown jewel Alibaba Group Holding to garner money at a time when a majority of its investments have tanked amid a global tech rout.

At the time, it had reported a net profit of ¥3.08 trillion ($21.77 billion) in the three months to September 30, thanks to a ¥37.93-billion gain related to the early settlement of prepaid forward contracts using Alibaba’s shares, the company’s regulatory filings showed.

In the September quarter, SoftBank’s Vision Fund investment unit had reported a loss of as much as ¥1.38 trillion on its investments hitting the company's profits for the quarter ended September.