Giving good Son

13 April 2020 By Richard Beales Follow @richardbeales1

SoftBank will report its first annual loss in 15 years thanks mainly to more losses on bets in its $100 bln Saudi-backed tech fund. The write-downs are neither out of line with markets nor fatal to Son’s vision. But along with other events they should shake even adherents’ faith.

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SoftBank Group expects its $100 billion Vision Fund to book a loss of 1.8 trillion yen ($17 billion) for the year to March 31 due to the worsening performance of its tech bets, which will tip the group as a whole into its first annual loss for 15 years.

A third consecutive quarter of losses by the Saudi Arabian-backed fund will push the company run by Masayoshi Son to an annual operating loss of 1.4 trillion yen, it said on April 13. SoftBank did not disclose which investments were being marked down in the fourth quarter.

The tech conglomerate said it would book an 800 billion yen loss on its own investments outside the fund including in struggling office-sharing group WeWork and satellite operator OneWeb, which last month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after SoftBank declined to provide further funding.

SoftBank's full financial report for the last fiscal year is due on May 7, according to Refinitiv data.

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