SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund has eked out its first profit in more than a year, thanks to a global tech rebound that has helped lift the value of some of its investments.
The Vision Fund unit swung to a profit of ¥61 billion ($426 million) in the quarter ended June, compared with a ¥2.33 trillion loss for the same period a year ago. That helped SoftBank report a smaller group-wide net loss of ¥477.6 billion versus a ¥3.16 trillion loss last year, with earnings dragged down by paper losses on its stakes in Alibaba Group Holding, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile U.S.
That’s a reprieve for the Vision Fund unit, which lost a record $30 billion last fiscal year. SoftBank invested billions of dollars in unprofitable startups from 2017, inflating valuations worldwide before they were punctured by China’s technology crackdown starting 2020 and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rate hikes last year.