Japanese investor SoftBank Group Corp’s tech-focused Vision funds reported an investment loss of $2.3 billion (352.7 billion yen) for the quarter ended December. This loss was attributed to the decline in the stock price of some of its public investments, including South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang, and also weak performance in some of its private portfolio companies.
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The investment loss in the Vision Funds comes after two consecutive quarters of gains. In the December quarter, Vision Fund 1 posted a $1 billion loss, mainly due to a decrease in the share price of Coupang and Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi. This was partially offset by an increase in the share price of Singapore’s Grab and other investments. The first fund has invested in Indian startups such as FirstCry and Delhivery.
Since its inception, Vision Fund I has generated $111.1 billion in cumulative returns on $89.5 billion in investments, translating into a $21.6 billion gross gain. In the nine months ending December, the fund has clocked $4.8 billion in investment gains.
Vision Fund 2, which has made 284 investments so far, compared to 61 investments in the first fund, recorded a $1.2 billion loss due to weaker performance of some private companies.
Even for the nine months ending December, the fund recorded $2.9 billion in investment loss, mainly due to a decline in the share prices of Ola Electric and AutoStore. This was partially offset by an increase in Swiggy’s share price following its listing in November.
SoftBank Vision Fund acquired around an 8% stake in Swiggy in 2021 and has not diluted its stake in the IPO.
However, the second Vision Fund has been struggling to match the performance of the first fund. Since its inception, the fund has generated $33 billion in cumulative returns on $55.2 billion in investments, which translates to a gross loss of $22.2 billion.
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“Both funds were also negatively impacted by the strong US dollar following the transition to a new US administration,” CFO Yoshimitsu Goto, said during the earnings announcement. He added that the firm holds $33 billion in late-stage investments and expects more IPOs beyond India.
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