Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to news in the evening of May 11, Beijing time, Softbank Corp. Group today released its financial results for the fourth quarter and the whole year of fiscal year 2022 ending March 31, 2023. The loss of Vision Fund, Softbank Corp. 's technology investment arm, hit an all-time high because the recent rebound in technology stocks did not give much impetus.

For the entire fiscal year 2022, the Vision Fund division lost 4.3 trillion yen ($32 billion, 221.02 billion yuan), compared with a loss of 2.55 trillion yen in the same period last year. Vision Fund's investment loss was 5.28 trillion yen, compared with 3.43 trillion yen in the same period last year.

Despite the rebound in technology stocks this year, the overall performance is still lower than a year ago. In Softbank Corp. 's 2022 fiscal year, the Nasdaq 100 index fell by about 11%. Overall, Softbank Corp. Group posted a net loss of 970.14 billion yen in fiscal 2022, down from 1.7 trillion yen a year earlier.

Softbank Corp. said that in the past year, "Vision Fund" has made a profit from withdrawing investments from well-known companies such as Uber. For example, the overall loss was reduced by selling shares in T-Mobile and Alibaba. In August last year, Softbank Corp. also sold all his shares in Uber. But at the same time, it has also lost money by investing in other companies, including GoTo, Indonesia's largest technology company.

Yoshimitsu Goto, Softbank Corp. 's chief financial officer (CFO), said today that the companies Softbank Corp. is investing in are well capitalized and a number of companies are preparing to go public, valuing them at a total valuation of $37 billion, but did not mention the names of these companies.

It was the idea of founder Masayoshi son (Masayoshi Son) that Softbank Corp. entered the defensive mode to set up a "vision fund", which consists of a "vision fund" I and a "vision fund" II, and mainly invests in high-growth stocks. But in recent years, these stocks have faced resistance to rising global interest rates, leading investors to sell riskier stocks such as technology stocks.

While losses are mounting, Rajiv Rajeev Misra, a key ally of Mr son and a senior executive of Softbank Corp., resigned from some of his positions at the company last August. Mr Misra played an important role in the early success of the Vision Fund, whose departure coincided with Softbank Corp. 's second consecutive quarter of the biggest quarterly loss in history.

About a year ago, Mr son said Softbank Corp. would enter "defensive" mode in the face of headwinds and become more disciplined in investing. Thanks to the rebound in technology stocks, this strategy appears to have worked in the first three months of the year. Vision Fund's investment loss during the period was 236.8 billion yen, down from 730.3 billion yen in the previous quarter.

Softbank Corp. said the company made $3.14 billion in new or follow-up investments in fiscal 2022, down from $44.26 billion in the same period last year. At today's news conference, Softbank Corp. CFO Goto Fangguang also said that this year has also been an "unstable" year, and he also mentioned the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS.

"in the first quarter, we may be able to see some signs of improvement," he said. but for these problems [financial system instability], no fundamental solutions are expected. "

In spite of this, Goto Fangguang also pointed out that Softbank Corp. is making "significant progress" in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, so the company is considering whether to continue to maintain the defense mode. "in this case, should we continue to defend, or should we keep a balance in attack?" he said.

Focusing on ARM IPO, investors are looking forward to the upcoming ARM IPO (initial public offering). ARM will be listed on Nasdaq later this year. ARM submitted its application secretly last month.

ARM IPO can not only support Softbank Corp. 's balance sheet, but may also provide him with more money to make new investments. In response, Goto said today that he could not discuss the ARM situation in detail because he had submitted his application secretly. But he said preparations for IPO were "going well".

In fiscal year 2022, ARM's sales were 381.7 billion yen (currently about 19.619 billion yuan), up more than 27% from a year earlier. Pre-tax profit was 48.6 billion yen (currently about 2.498 billion yuan), up 18% from a year earlier.

In an effort to attract investors, it emerged in March that ARM plans to adjust its business model to increase the price of its chip designs, hoping to boost revenue ahead of IPO. It was also reported last month that ARM was building its own chip to demonstrate its manufacturing capabilities.

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