Workers were seen preparing for a SoftBank Group Corp. news conference in Tokyo on June 27, 2024. SoftBank’s Vision Fund reported a 1.9 billion yen ($12.9 million) investment gain in the fiscal first quarter, thanks to successful investments in Chinese firms such as ByteDance, despite losses from others like AutoStore. The Vision Fund segment, however, posted an overall loss of 204.3 billion yen compared to the previous year’s profit.
SoftBank announced a share buyback of up to 6.8%, worth 500 billion yen ($3.4 billion), following shareholder pressure to boost its market value. The previous quarter saw a significant loss, but the fiscal year ended in March showed the first full-year gain since 2021, driven by a tech stock rally and the initial public offering of Arm, where SoftBank holds a 90% stake.
Despite success in technology investments, SoftBank faces volatile markets, with shares plunging nearly 19% recently due to a Bank of Japan rate hike. Global economic concerns and high stock valuations contribute to ongoing market instability.
SoftBank aims to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom, highlighting investments in Arm and self-driving startup Wayve. Founder Masayoshi Son has reemerged, predicting AI advancements far surpassing human intelligence within a decade.
In the June quarter, SoftBank’s net sales rose 9.3% year-on-year to 1.7 trillion yen, beating expectations, and net profit reached 10.5 billion yen after a significant loss last year. Gains from Alibaba and T-Mobile shares contributed to this improvement. SoftBank has gradually reduced its Alibaba stake to fund AI investments.
Original Story https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/07/softbank-earnings-report-q1-fy-2024.html
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