SoftBank’s Vision Fund, the brainchild of the company’s founder Masayoshi Son, has faced a number of headwinds including a slump in technology stocks as a result of rising interest rates, a tough China market and geopolitics.
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SoftBank posted a 724.3 billion Japanese yen ($4.6 billion) gain on its Vision Fund in the fiscal year ended March, the first time the flagship tech investment arm has been in the black since 2021.
For the full fiscal year, SoftBank’s Vision Fund segment posted a profit of 128.2 billion yen, swinging to profit after a 4.3 trillion yen loss the year before.
A recovery in the Vision Fund helped SoftBank Group swing to a profit in the fiscal fourth quarter that ended March.
The Vision Fund was helped by the gain in value of some of SoftBank’s most high-profile investments, including TikTok owner ByteDance and U.S. food delivery firm DoorDash. However, SoftBank took a hit on some of its other investments such as Chinese ride-hailing firm DiDi as well as office sharing company WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year.
The Japanese firm said gains associated with the IPO of Arm, which is a subsidiary of Softbank, are not reported in its “consolidated statement of profit or loss.” Excluding gains associated with Vision Fund’s investments in its subsidiaries, the tech investment arm posted a loss of 167.3 billion yen.
Still, there are signs a recovery is underway for SoftBank which has been hit by bad bets on some tech firms as well as volatile markets.
Here’s how SoftBank did in the March quarter against LSEG estimates:
Net sales: 1.75 trillion yen ($11.3 billion) versus 1.84 trillion yen expected.
Net profit: 231.1 billion yen versus a 71.64 billion yen loss expected.
Still for the full year, SoftBank posted an overall loss of 227.6 billion yen, but that is narrower than the 970.1 billion yen loss from the fiscal year before.
Arm ‘core’ to AI shift
SoftBank’s flagship tech investment arm, the Vision Fund, had a tough time in the fiscal year that ended in March 2023, posting a record loss of around $32 billion amid a slump in tech stock prices and the souring of some of the business’ bets in China.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son flagged in 2023 that the firm would shift into “offense” mode, from defense mode, and depart from its cautious approach to start making more investments.
SoftBank’s Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said in the previous quarter that SoftBank had shifted from an “Alibaba to AI-centric portfolio.”
The tech conglomerate grew into one of Japan’s biggest companies thanks to Son’s early bet on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2000, which has boomed over the coming years.
The firm has been cutting its stake in Alibaba, and senior executives, including Son and Goto, have touted their excitement around artificial intelligence technology and the SoftBank’s potential to invest in companies in the sector.
Arm has become a central part of SoftBank’s portfolio. At the end of March, Arm accounted for 47% of assets held by SoftBank, compared to just just 10% in March 2020, Goto said on Monday. Alibaba accounts for 0% of assets held versus 48% in the same period.
“Arm is core to our AI shift,” Goto said.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the full-year gain for SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
A file photo of Hiroki Totoki, Sony Group Corporation executive, delivering a keynote address at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, on January 6, 2025.
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Sony Group shares rose about 2% Wednesday in volatile trading after the Japanese conglomerate announced a 250 billion yen ($1.7 billion) share buyback and operating income beat estimates.
Operating income for the last three months of the financial year came in at 203.6 billion yen, beating mean analyst estimates of 192.2 billion yen, though it was down 11% from the same period last year.
In the earnings report, the Japanese-based electronics, entertainment and finance company announced a stock buyback of shares worth 250 billion yen.
Sony also provided details on a partial spinoff of its financial unit. The company plans to distribute slightly more than 80% of the shares of common stock of the spinoff to shareholders of Sony Group through dividends.
The financial unit will list its financial operation this year and will be classified as a discontinued operation in Sony’s accounting from the current quarter, the company added.
However, Sony’s outlook for the current financial year ending in March was lackluster.
The company forecasted its operating profit to rise a slight 0.3% to 1.28 trillion yen, after flagging a 100 billion yen hit from U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Yet, Sony clarified that the estimated tariff impact did not reflect the trade deal made between the U.S. and China on May 12 and that the actual impact could vary significantly.
A Samsung Group flag flutters in front of the company’s Seocho building in Seoul.
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Samsung Electronics on Wednesday announced that it would acquire all shares of German-based FläktGroup, a leading heating and cooling solutions provider, for 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion) from European investment firm Triton.
Samsung said the acquisition would help it expand in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning business as the market experiences rapid growth.
“Our commitment is to continue investing in and developing the high-growth HVAC business as a key future growth engine,” said TM Roh, Acting Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics.
The acquisition of FläktGroup stands to bolster Samsung’s position in the HVAC market against rivals such as LG Electronics.
FläktGroup supplies heating, HVAC solutions to a wide range of buildings and facilities, notably data centers which require a high degree of stable cooling. Samsung said it anticipates sustained growth in data center demand due to the proliferation of generative AI, robotics, autonomous driving and other technologies.
FläktGroup has more 60 major customers, including leading pharmaceutical companies, biotech and food and beverage firms, and gigafactories, according to Samsung’s statement.
Samsung said in March that its HVAC solutions had achieved double-digit annual revenue growth over the past five years, and that the company aimed to boost revenue by more than 30% in 2025.
