Japan's SoftBank reduces its investment losses with gains in Alibaba and other holdings

TOKYO — Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. reported a smaller loss for the last quarter compared to a year earlier.

Tokyo-based SoftBank’s losses totaled 174 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in the April-June quarter, the company said Wednesday. It racked up nearly 478 billion yen in red ink in the same period of last year.

Quarterly sales rose 9% at SoftBank, which has investments in various technology companies including American office-space-sharing WeWork; Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company, and telecommunications company T-Mobile.

SoftBank said its investments operations improved considerably from the past year, with a nearly 560 billion yen ($3.8 billion) gain.

WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June. Sales increased in Arm, an artificial intelligence and processor company, while investments gains were recorded for Alibaba and T-Mobile holdings.

An investment gain of 32 billion yen ($218 million) was recorded at SoftBank Vision Funds, as the value of those share holdings rose.

But the weak yen, a plus for Japanese exporters like Toyota, worked negatively for SoftBank, adding 443.9 billion yen ($3 billion) in red ink for the latest quarter. The U.S. dollar was trading at 150-yen levels during that period.