Japan's SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) fell to a quarterly loss on Tuesday, as its giant Vision Fund investment unit remained in the red for a fourth straight quarter, sharpening focus on when markets will recover enough to allow it to list some assets.
The Vision Fund, which upended the world of technology with its big bets on startups, reported an investment loss of 730.36 billion yen ($5.52 billion) in the fiscal third quarter. At SoftBank itself, the net loss totalled 783.42 billion yen, compared with a 29.05 billion yen profit a year earlier.
The results could make investors even more keen to see an initial public offering (IPO) of British chip designer Arm, considered one of the sprawling conglomerate's prize assets. SoftBank aims to list Arm by the end of 2023, the company said.
"The Vision Fund has been strictly managed for the past year under the severe environment. We intend to keep that tight management in place and ascertain ... investment opportunities as we go forward," Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said.
Arm has made "good progress in terms of being IPO-ready," Navneet Govil, the fund's chief financial officer, told Reuters after the results, adding there were about 30 companies in the fund's portfolio that are set to go public when markets are ready.
SoftBank said the Vision Fund unit had significantly curtailed new investments and was continuing to sell some older ones as part of "prudent defensive financial management" amid the challenging market environment.
The unit's investment loss of 730 billion yen in the October-December quarter was down from a loss of 1.38 trillion yen in the previous quarter.
"If there is a silver lining, the quarterly loss was the lowest of the last four quarters," Redex Research analyst Kirk Boodry said in a research note.
