SoftBank posts Q3 profit gain as Vision Fund rallies

Reuters Updated - February 08, 2021 at 02:49 PM.

That’s a sea change from a year earlier when the flop IPO of WeWork and Covid-19 forced CEO Masayoshi Son to sell some assets

A pedestrian walks past a shop of SoftBank Group along a street in Tokyo on February 8, 2021, ahead of the company's earnings reports expected after the markets close later in the day. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)

SoftBank Group Corp on Monday recorded an 844 billion yen ($8 billion) profit at its Vision Fund unit in the three months to December 31 compared with a loss a year ago as it gained from investments in Uber Technologies and other companies.

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The earnings mark a sea change from a year earlier when high-profile misses such as the flopped IPO of office sharing firm WeWork and the Covid-19 pandemic forced CEO Masayoshi Son to sell down assets to stabilise his investing empire.

During the third quarter, net profit ballooned more than 20 times to 1.17 trillion yen ($11.09 billion). That compared with an estimate of 171 billion yen from four analysts polled by Refinitiv Smart Estimate.

Published on February 8, 2021 07:27