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SoftBank’s Vision Fund made a record $8 billion (844 billion yen) profit in the final three months of the year as its bets on Uber and food delivery service DoorDash paid off, its third-quarter earnings showed on Monday.
The jump in profit to $7.99 billion compared to a loss of around $2.13 billion (224 billion yen) in the same quarter a year earlier, when poor performances from WeWork and Uber rocked the $100 billion Japanese tech fund.
However, the boom in stock markets and initial public offerings seen in 2020 helped SoftBank turn around its Vision Fund, which specializes in investing in fast-growing tech names.
Yet SoftBank recorded a $2.7 billion (285 billion yen) loss in derivatives trading in the period, its earnings showed, which is likely to increase scrutiny of founder Masayoshi Son’s controversial decision to delve into stock and options trading.
As a whole, SoftBank’s net income jumped to $11.09 billion (1.17 trillion yen) in the third quarter, boosted by Vision Fund’s record results. SoftBank’s third quarter was the three months to December 31.
The company said its main Vision Fund and Vision Fund 2 recorded gains on investments of $25.85 billion (2.73 trillion yen) in the 9 months to December 31.
The bulk of the growth came from unrealized gains in its main Vision Fund thanks to bets on DoorDash and Uber.
US food delivery service DoorDash went public in December, turning SoftBank’s $680m investment into a stake worth around $10bn after the shares shot up on their debut.
After costing Vision Fund heavily in 2019, the stake in ride-hailing app Uber began paying off in 2020, with the shares up around 45% over the last year.
The main Vision Fund also realized gains of $1.98 billion (209 billion yen) in the 9 months to December 31 by selling some or all of its shares in 11 portfolio companies.
Vision Fund 2’s gains were boosted by Chinese housing transaction platform KE Holdings and biotech company Seer’s successful initial public offerings.