TOKYO: Investment giant Softbank Group on Wednesday reported the best ever annual net profit for a Japanese company, reaping the rewards of tech share rallies to recover from last year’s record loss.
The telecoms firm turned investment behemoth has poured money into some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names and hottest new ventures from AI to biotech through its $100-billion Vision Fund.
People moving their lives online during pandemic lockdowns boosted the tech sector and helped the firm score a net profit of 4.99 trillion yen ($45.8 billion) for the year to March, SoftBank said.
The yearly figure tops Japan’s previous record held by Toyota and places SoftBank among the world’s most profitable companies.
But the firm warned that virus uncertainties meant there was “no guarantee that the current positive impact will be sustained”, while analysts said a recent rout in tech shares could spell trouble for the firm.
In 2019-20, SoftBank reported a net loss of 961.6 billion yen — its worst ever — as the start of the pandemic compounded woes caused by its investment in troubled office-sharing start-up WeWork.
But it quickly returned to profit as the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns worked largely in its favour.
In January, SoftBank announced the sale of $2 billion worth of stocks in Uber following a surge in the US ride-hailing giant’s value, though it still remains the firm’s main shareholder.
Last month the Japanese group said it will buy a 40 percent stake in Norwegian robotics company AutoStore, which develops warehouse automation technology, in a deal worth $2.8 billion.
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