Japan's tech investor SoftBank trims losses and promises offensive turnaround

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Japanese technology company SoftBank Group continued to rack up losses for the fiscal first quarter as technology investments soured amid a market downturn

TOKYO — Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. continued to rack up losses for the fiscal first quarter as technology investments soured amid a market downturn.

But SoftBank’s April-June red ink, at 477.6 billion yen ($3.4 billion), was smaller than a year ago, when losses totaled 3.16 trillion yen ($22 billion), the Tokyo-based company said Tuesday.

Losses came from what SoftBank calls its Vision Funds, as well as from other investments including those in telecommunications in Japan.

Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto struck an upbeat tone, stressing that the environment for technology issues was improving.

“We must pay attention to the conditions and adjust stepping on the gas pedal, as well as on the brakes on investments accordingly,” he told reporters.

SoftBank Vision Fund 1 marked a $12.4 billion gain since its inception, while SoftBank Vision Fund 2, set up after the first fund, was still performing at a loss of $18.6 billion, according to SoftBank.

Over the latest period, Vision Fund 1 saw the value of its holdings rise in South Korea e-commerce company Coupang and Singaporean technology outfit Grab. That was offset by declines in its portfolio of Didi and other Chinese companies, it said.

In SBVF2, the strong performance of American warehouse robotics company Symbotic shares was offset by a decline in WeWork, a U.S. workspace-sharing startup. SoftBank recently announced a joint venture with Symbotic.

Goto insisted that the overall performance on the Vision Fund investments was improving.

Much of the latest quarterly loss came from the recent