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SoftBank’s net profit increases 11.9 pc in April-June


Bangladeshpost
Published : 13 Aug 2020 08:07 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 10:33 PM

SoftBank Group Corp. announced on Tuesday that its net profit increased 11.9 percent to 1.26 trillion yen (11.87 billion U.S. dollars) in the April-June period, buoyed by the telecoms and Internet giant spinning off assets to compensate for hefty losses from its investment fund, Xinhua reports.

SoftBank Group, while reporting its sales declined 2.0 percent on year to 1.45 trillion yen (13.66 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of fiscal 2020, opted not to disclose its full-year forecast or operating profit.

In a bid to raise funds to offset losses from its Saudi Arabia-backed Vision Fund, the tech conglomerate said it had sold assets to the tune of 4.3 trillion yen (40.53 billion U.S. dollars) of its previous set target of 4.5 trillion yen.

The fundraising scheme has involved the conglomerate selling a 5-percent stake in its mobile carrier and communications services division SoftBank Corp. as well a two-thirds stake in T-Mobile U.S. Inc.

SoftBank's 100 billion U.S. dollar Vision Fund set up to invest in high-potential tech startups and firms, ended up accumulating losses totaling 1.9 trillion yen (17.89 billion U.S. dollars) in fiscal 2019, due to substantial loss-making investments in tech firms that failed to meet expectations, as well as the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday that one option to recoup losses could be though the selling of its 75 percent-owned British chip design firm Arm Ltd. "We are exploring selling part of or all of Arm's value as an option," Son said during an online press briefing. 

He said another plan could be to bring forward plans to list Arm.

"Another option is to bring forward our plan to list Arm in 2023 to next year or the year after that," Son said, adding that all options remained open "until the last minute."