TOKYO – SoftBank Group Corp. drove red-hot stock markets to a major quarterly profit, largely thanks to investment gains at the $ 100 billion Vision Fund and its $ 10 billion successor.
The Japanese technology investor said Monday it posted net profit of ¥ 1.17 trillion, which equates to approximately $ 11 billion, on investment gains of ¥ 1.77 trillion during the quarter ended December 31. Nearly 80% of investment gains were attributable to strong performance. at Vision Funds 1 and 2.
Anticipating strong results, SoftBank’s stock price rose 4.4% to ¥ 9,485 Monday – a level last reached in February 2000, when the company’s stock peaked during the Internet bubble.
“We have finally entered the harvest phase,” for the Vision Fund, SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said at a press conference in Tokyo, as he stood in front of a slide showing a goose laying towering columns of golden eggs that represented SoftBank’s investment hits. .
The results show just how much the public market boom in recent months has benefited from SoftBank, which completed its transformation over the past year into an investment holding company of a telecommunications conglomerate. Rising stock prices last year helped SoftBank slam its way back into the black after losing billions of dollars.