Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, has been weighing up various options for chipmaker Arm after Nvidia walked away from buying the company.
Alessandro Di Ciommo | Nurphoto | Getty Images
SoftBank offered a sharp rebuke on Wednesday to S&P Global Ratings, after the agency downgraded the Japanese giant’s credit rating.
“Over the past year, our strict defensive financial management has strengthened our financial position as never before,” SoftBank said. “It is extremely regrettable that our financial soundness was not properly assessed, and we will continue our dialogue with S&P.”
related investing news
S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday cut SoftBank’s rating to “BB” from “BB+” — where it deems a company’s credit rating as “speculative grade” or “junk.”
SoftBank shares closed down 2.3% in Tokyo on Wednesday.
SoftBank has turned itself into one of the world’s biggest tech investors over the last few years, putting billions of dollars into some of the biggest technology firms, including Uber, via its two Vision Funds. SoftBank mainly invests in companies that are not publicly listed.
SoftBank has been cutting its stake in Chinese e-commerce Alibaba, which it has held for more than two decades and made the Japanese firm’s founder Masayoshi Son his fortune. The aim is to shore up SoftBank’s balance sheet, as the company’s management has pledged to play “defense” and be more prudent with its investment strategy.
S&P Global Ratings nevertheless argues that SoftBank’s Vision Funds have a high exposure to unlisted company shares, which are more volatile, as a result of selling Alibaba stock that are listed in both the U.S. and Hong Kong.
“Ongoing sales of shares in China-based Alibaba Group Holding Ltd … previously a major asset for the company, have eroded the proportion of listed assets in its portfolio,” S&P said. “Furthermore, the technology stocks in which the company has primarily invested have been depressed for a prolonged period.”
SoftBank argues that S&P is not taking into account its cash position, which rose to 5.1 trillion yen in the fiscal year ended Mar. 31, versus 2.3 trillion in the same period of 2022.
“It should be noted that S&P’s assessment of the proportion of listed assets excludes cash and deposits, etc. (JPY 5.1 trillion), which are the most liquid assets,” SoftBank said.
Going public with Arm would be a “positive factor” for SoftBank, S&P noted, but it hasn’t included this development in its assessment because the timing and valuation of the company remain “uncertain.”
SoftBank said it has “strongly urged S&P to consider an upgrade once the proposed initial public offering of Arm is completed.”
S&P also noted that SoftBank is aiming for “disciplined financial management even in a difficult operating environment,” which continues to “underpin the company’s creditworthiness.”
Ultimately, the negative factors outweighed the positives, the ratings agency said.
“We therefore downgraded the company. The volatility of its investment portfolio and rising asset risk drive the negatives for the group. Meanwhile, financial management capability; a high level of cash; and holdings of shares in Arm, which could be listed, are positives.”
The Texas-based space company said in an updated prospectus Monday that it’s planning to sell about 16.2 million shares. The offering could raise up to $631.8 million.
Earlier this month, Firefly filed its plans to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “FLY.”
Its debut comes amid a renewed push in the space race, as billionaire-led companies such as Elon Musk‘s SpaceX funnel more money into space activities and startups try their luck at the public markets.
Space tech firm Voyager went public in June, while reusable rocket developer Innovative Rocket Technologies said it plans to debut through a $400 million special purpose acquisition company merger.
Read more CNBC tech news
Firefly’s public market launch also coincides with a revival in IPO activity as debilitating interest rates and an overhang from President Donald Trump‘s tariff plans begin to clear. Design software company Figma is slated to go public this week after raising its range.
Firefly makes rockets, space tugs and lunar landers, including satellite launching rockets known as Alpha. At the end of March, the company reported a sixfold jump in revenue from $8.3 million a year ago to $55.9 million.
The company also reported a net loss of about $60.1 million, up from a loss of $52.8 million a year ago, and said its backlog totaled about $1.1 billion.
Some of Firefly’s major backers include AE Industrial Partners, which led an early investing round in the company. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman invested $50 million in the startup this May, and Firefly says it has collaborated with Lockheed Martin, L3Harris and NASA.
Elena Nadolinski, founder and CEO at Iron Fish, and Dylan Field, CEO and co-founder of Figma, attend the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 7, 2022.
The company now expects shares to go for $30 to 32 each, up from the range of $25 to $28 that it disclosed on July 21.
The new range, announced in a regulatory filing, suggests Figma would be worth $17.6 billion to $18.8 billion on a fully diluted basis.
Read more CNBC tech news
That would still be below the $20 billion total that Adobe had offered when it announced plans to acquire Figma in 2022. The deal fell apart after regulators pushed back on competitive grounds.
Figma is among the most valuable privately held technology companies.
Financial technology companies Chime and Circle went public in June, and CoreWeave shares debuted in March. Circle and CoreWeave shares have since more than doubled in price.
The Huawei flagship store and the Apple flagship store at Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai, China, Sept. 2, 2024.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Huawei reclaimed the top spot in China’s smartphone market in the second quarter of the year, while Apple returned to growth in the country — one of its most critical markets — data released by technology market analyst firm Canalys showed on Monday.
Huawei shipped 12.2 million smartphones in China in the three months ended June, a rise of 15% year on year — equating to 18% market share. It’s the first time Huawei has been the biggest player by market share in China since the first quarter of 2024, according to Canalys.
Apple, meanwhile, shipped 10.1 million smartphones in the quarter in China, up 4% year on year and ranking fifth. It is the first time Apple has recorded growth in China since the fourth quarter of 2023, Canalys said.
Shipments represent the number of devices sent to retailers. They do no equate directly to sales but are a gauge of demand.
The numbers come ahead of Apple’s quarterly earnings release this week, with investors watching the company’s performance in China, a market where the Cupertino giant has faced significant challenges, including intense competition from Huawei and other local players such as Xiaomi.
Huawei, which made a comeback at the end of 2023 after its smartphone business was crippled by U.S. sanctions, has eaten away at Apple’s share.
Apple’s return to growth in China will be a welcome sign for investors. The U.S. tech giant “strategically adjusted its pricing” for the iPhone 16 series in China, which helped it grow, Canalys said. Chinese e-commerce firms discounted Apple’s iPhone 16 models during the quarter. And Apple itself also increased trade-in prices for some iPhone models.
Meanwhile, competition in China has intensified. Huawei has aggressively launched various smartphones in the past year and has started to roll out HarmonyOS 5, its self-developed operating system, across various devices. It is a rival to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
“This move is expected to accelerate the expansion of its independent ecosystem’s user base, while also placing greater demands on system compatibility and user experience,” Lucas Zhong, analyst at Canalys, said in a press release.