According to reports, analysts said the company is expected to disclose the huge losses of Softbank's vision fund on Thursday after investors sold off growth stocks held by Softbank's vision fund because of concerns about profit prospects As the famous Japanese technology investor is about to disclose its annual report, the company's founder son Zhengyi's risk appetite under the background of rising interest rates and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine will also attract special attention.
Softbank lost a lot because of the decline of Chinese technology stocks. As its important investment objects, grab and goupang also experienced a sharp decline from January to March.
Analysts believe that the Japanese group company may also include losses because of its unlisted portfolio because the weak performance of the public market is also transmitted to the private market.
"It's hard to imagine that they won't write down any private assets this quarter." Kirk boodry, an analyst at REDEX research, said he expected the vision fund to include the biggest loss ever.
"They may be like two years ago because they know the market is bad this quarter." Budley said.
Affected by the rising valuation of private investment objects, vision fund rebounded by $850 million in the third quarter after suffering an investment loss of $8.9 billion in the second quarter.
The $100 billion vision fund has made large bets on later technology start-ups, many of which have successfully listed, but now many have fallen below the issue price.
The $50 billion vision fund No. 2 has a small investment amount, but it has encountered the rising valuation of private assets and the pressure of competitors such as Tiger Fund. The decline of portfolio valuation has also squeezed Softbank's profits.
The lack of transparency in the investment portfolio of the second fund, coupled with the poor performance of listed assets, has not yet contributed to the upward revaluation of Softbank's share price. Softbank's shares are currently trading at less than the sum of its assets.
Softbank currently gives priority to investing through the vision fund and gradually weakens the status of sb Northstar, which once brought personal losses to son Zhengyi by betting on derivatives and stocks of listed companies such as Amazon and Facebook.
Citigroup analyst mlitsunobu tsuruo wrote in the Research Report: "we believe that the return on investment of other funds is very low, including Latin America Fund and Sb Northstar."
Softbank also had about $35 billion in cash at the end of December and has reduced its holdings of assets including coupang and T-Mobile America. Supported by the 1 trillion yen repurchase project, Softbank's share price has fallen by 8% this year.
As the most brilliant representative of son Zhengyi's investment career, the Alibaba Group shares held by the company are currently worth about $60 billion. Since the end of 2020, the market value of the Chinese e-commerce giant has also evaporated by about two-thirds.
After the failure to sell arm, a chip design company, to NVIDIA, Softbank is promoting the latter's listing, which is expected to be valued at up to $60 billion.