Softbank Group 4% Call 19.09.2029 ISIN XS1684385591

PREVIEW-SoftBank faces tech stock weakness at Q2 earnings
06/11/2022 23:00 - RSF
TOKYO, Nov 7 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp is expected to face further weakness in tech stocks when it reports second-quarter earnings on Friday, after two brutal quarters that have shaken Masayoshi Son's tech conglomerate.

The Vision Fund investing arm booked $50 billion in losses in the six months to end-June as valuations slid. Founder and Chief Executive Son has moved to cut headcount and refocus the second fund on managing its existing portfolio.

In the July-September quarter falling stocks included ridehailing and e-commerce firm GoTo and real estate broker Compass with e-commerce firm Coupang among the gainers.

SoftBank's portfolio also remains exposed to China, with companies including ridehailer Didi falling further during the second quarter. Alibaba , which SoftBank has been selling to raise cash, has fallen more than 40% year-to-date.

The conglomerate offers limited visibility into its private asset valuations, but announced chunky writedowns across the two Vision Funds in August. Redex Research analyst Kirk Boodry estimates public portfolio losses of around $5 billion.

Although SoftBank briefings are centred on Son's presentations, which employ imagery such as a goose or unicorns, the billionaire will this quarter limit himself to opening remarks, with Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto presenting.

"Masa has decided to focus additional time and energy this quarter on business opportunities related to Arm's future growth," a SoftBank spokesperson said.

The increased visibility for Son's long-time lieutenant Goto comes after an exodus of senior managers. Vision Fund's Chief Financial Officer Navneet Govil will also take the stage.

Son has outlined plans to list chip designer Arm in the United States after the sale to Nvidia (NVDA.O) collapsed.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index

SoftBank's own shares, by contrast, are up a fifth this year, compared with an almost 40% slide in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite

The conglomerate has been repurchasing its shares.


The "outperformance leaves no upside," Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a note last week, downgrading his rating on the stock to hold. "For most/all funding needs, SBG will use Alibaba shares to defend its balance sheet or stock price," Goyal wrote.

(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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UPDATE 1-NTT, Kioxia to invest in new Japan-backed logic semiconductor firm - TV Tokyo
Oggi 10:21 - RSF
(Adds Nikkei report)
TOKYO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Japanese companies, including Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp and Kioxia Holdings Corp, have decided to invest in a new government-backed company that aims to mass-produce next-generation logic semiconductors, TV Tokyo reported on Thursday.

Other companies, including Toyota Motor Corp , Sony Group , SoftBank and Denso Corp , also plan to invest about 1 billion yen ($6.84 million) each into the new company, the Nikkei newspaper reported separately.
Japan's government will set up a new research centre by the end of 2022 to develop sub 2-nanometer semiconductors, which will be led by a former Tokyo Electron Ltd president, TV Tokyo also said.

($1 = 146.2800 yen)
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Jan Harvey and Jane Merriman)
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UPDATE 2-SoftBank shares tumble after Vision Fund reports another big loss
Oggi 05:17 - RSF
(Adds analyst comments, updates share price movement)
TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Shares in Japan's SoftBank Group Corp plunged on Monday after the company reported a heavy loss at its Vision Fund investment arm for a third consecutive quarter.

The shares sank 13% in early afternoon trade - heading for their biggest one-day loss in more than two and a half years.

Analysts said, however, that the share price slide was in part a pullback from a steep rally that had been driven by hopes of more share buybacks. As of Friday's close, SoftBank shares had gained more than 40% since October.

"Various expectations including another round of share buy-backs had pushed their share prices higher, and now they are in an adjustment phase," SBI Securities analyst Shinji Moriyuki said.

Just a day before Friday's quarterly results, SoftBank announced the completion of its plan to spend 400 billion yen ($2.88 billion) to buy back its own shares.
Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal said in a note to clients: "We were looking for another round of buyback announcement but there was none."
Market specialists said worries about weakness in technology stocks is another factor weighing on shares in SoftBank, which bets heavily on growth of high-tech companies.

"The outlook for IT (information technology) companies is dim amid the slowing global economy," Shigetoshi Kamada, general manager at the research department at Tachibana Securities.

"Expectations for SoftBank Group's growth have been shrinking as there is a concern that value of its portfolio companies may not grow in this environment."
The Vision Fund logged investment losses of 1.38 trillion yen ($9.9 billion) in the three months to Sept. 30 as the value of its portfolio continued to slide. (news)

But SoftBank as a whole reported its first quarterly profit in three quarters, buoyed by paring some of its stake in China's Alibaba Group Holdings .

SoftBank shares were still up 11% from the start of the year, far outperforming the tech-heavy Nasdaq's

($1 = 138.9900 yen)
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Junko Fujita; Editing by David Dolan and Edwina Gibbs)
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BREAKINGVIEWS-SoftBank buyout goes from impossible to improbable
11/11/2022 10:58 - RSF
(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are their own.)
MUMBAI, Nov 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Masayoshi Son is in good shape, or so he re-assured investors on Friday as the SoftBank Group boss explained why he will no longer give his colourful quarterly earnings presentations. He talked at length, nonetheless, and can step back with a small dose of optimism.

The $74 billion Japanese investor logged earnings of $21 billion in the three months to end September after trimming its stake in Alibaba , (BABA.N). It offsets some gloom as technology valuations plummet; writedowns of its punt on crypto exchange FTX will follow. The exchange once valued at $32 billion is probably worthless.

Son is steadily gaining too through accelerating share buybacks, which have pushed his stake up to roughly 30%, using Refinitiv data, from 22% in March 2019. Expectations that these repurchases are a prelude to a buyout have helped lift SoftBank’s shares by one quarter in the past month. If he offered a 25% premium, Son would need roughly $65 billion to buy the rest he doesn’t own, or about half the amount he would have required a couple of years ago.

Any such move seems fanciful. Even the bidders for its $15 billion compatriot Toshiba , an iconic company with industrial assets which ought to be easier to value, are struggling to wrap up financing for such a deal. But any further sales of Alibaba or other assets would give SoftBank the firepower to keep buying out minorities. A take-private is still improbable, but it gets less so by the day. (By Una Galani)
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REFILE-India's Oyo Hotels reports smaller loss in July-Sept vs prior qtr
Oggi 05:15 - RSF
(Corrects spelling of 'prior' in headline in story issued on Saturday)
MUMBAI, Nov 26 (Reuters) - SoftBank-backed Indian hotel aggregator Oyo Hotels and Homes Pvt Ltd reported a smaller loss for the July-September period compared with the previous quarter, in an update to its initial public offering prospectus released on Saturday.

The company reported a net loss of 3.33 billion rupees($40.77 million) in the second quarter of the financial year compared with a loss of 4.14 billion rupees in the first quarter. The company's financial year runs from April 1 to March 31.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the second quarter rose to 560 million rupees from 70 million rupees in the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA refers to earnings adjusted for asset depreciation and hotel transformations, among other factors, according to the company's prospectus.

The company reported a 24% increase in revenue during the first half of the year, to 29.05 billion rupees. It did not disclose a quarterly revenue figure.

The monthly revenue per hotel, or gross booking value, rose 69% year-on-year to 348,000 rupees.

Oyo Hotels first filed to go public in October 2021 but it has delayed the share sale due to market conditions.

($1 = 81.6850 Indian rupees)
(Writing by Ira Dugal; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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UPDATE 2-Singapore's Temasek holds internal review of $275 mln FTX-related loss
30/11/2022 07:24 - RSF
(Updates to add further comment, context)
SINGAPORE, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Wednesday that Temasek Holdings has initiated an internal review of its investment in the now-bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, which resulted in a write-down of $275 million.

Wong, who is also finance minister, said the loss did not mean state investor Temasek's governance system was not working and "no amount of due diligence and monitoring can eliminate the risks altogether".

But Singapore's leader-in-waiting told parliament the loss was "disappointing" and had caused reputational damage to Temasek.

"The fact that other leading global institutional investors like BlackRock and Sequoia Capital also invested in FTX does not mitigate this," said Wong.

After pumping about $275 million into FTX, Temasek decided to write down the investment following the spectacular collapse of the exchange.

The review will be conducted by an independent internal team reporting directly to the board and will not involve those who made the investment, Wong said.


Temasek has said its cost of investment in FTX was 0.09% of its net portfolio value of S$403 billion ($293.97 billion) as of March 31, 2022, and it currently had no direct exposure in cryptocurrencies.


Explaining its actions, Temasek said it had conducted "extensive due diligence" on FTX from February to October 2021 and its audited financial statement then "showed it to be profitable".


Wong told lawmakers the individual loss did not impact returns to Singapore's reserves, which are tied to long-term returns.
FTX's other backers such as SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund and Sequoia Capital have also marked down their investment to zero after FTX, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States this month week in the highest-profile crypto blowup to date.

($1 = 1.3709 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Chen Lin and Xinghui Kok; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Ed Davies)
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UPDATE 2-UAE wealth fund ADIA to invest in India's Lenskart -report
12/12/2022 07:38 - RSF
(Adds that ADIA declined to comment)
BENGALURU, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is in advanced talks to invest $350 million to $400 million in India's Lenskart , valuing the eyewear retailer at $4.5 billion, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Monday.

The investment, which could give ADIA an almost 10% stake in Lenskart, is likely to be in the form of a secondary sale of shares, with a small primary round comprising growth equity, the report added, citing people aware of the matter.

The details on the investors that would dilute their stake, and by how much, were yet to be decided, the report said, adding an official announcement is expected in a couple of weeks.

ADIA, which currently does not have a stake in Lenskart, declined to comment. Lenskart did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters seeking comment.

Started in 2010, Lenskart's investors include U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co Inc (KKR.N), Japan's SoftBank Group and Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings.

Lenskart also operates in the United States, Singapore and the UAE. It has a manufacturing unit in the Indian state of Haryana and a yet-to-be-started fully-automated plant in the state of Rajasthan.

Earlier this year, Lenskart acquired a majority stake in Japanese eyewear brand Owndays, turning the Indian company into one of Asia's largest online retailers in the segment.

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
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UPDATE 1-U.S., UK export controls hit China's access to Arm's chip designs - FT
Oggi 07:42 - RSF
(Adds details from FT report, disclosures)
Dec 14 (Reuters) - Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd cannot buy some of the most advanced chip designs after the SoftBank-owned British chip tech firm Arm Ltd determined that U.S. and Britain would not approve licences to export technology to China, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

This is the first known time that Arm has decided it could not export its most cutting-edge designs to China, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The British chip tech firm concluded that the U.S. and UK would not approve the sale of its latest Neoverse V series because the performance was too high, the report added
Alibaba and Arm did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The development comes two months after the U.S. published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with U.S. tools, vastly expanding its reach to slow Beijing's technological and military advances.

The Biden administration also plans to place Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies and 35 other Chinese firms on a trade blacklist that would prevent them from buying certain American components, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

Arm launched its next generation of data center chip technology called Neoverse V2 earlier this year to meet the explosive growth of data from 5G and internet-connected gadgets.

Over the past year, Arm has released several new core designs, including Neoverse N2 and Neoverse V1 and V2, the latter of which are the highest- performance cores to date, the report said.

Chinese companies have been blocked from purchasing Neoverse V2 and its previous generation V1 because of the U.S. and UK export controls that are connected to technologies listed under Wassenaar, an agreement that limits the movement of "dual-use" technologies sought for both peaceful and military purposes, FT said, citing people briefed on the reasoning behind the move.

(Reporting by Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
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