Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank has reported a ¥141bn ($1.34bn) return from sales of company stakes held by its Vision Fund in the six months ending September 2020.
SoftBank closed its first Vision Fund at $98.6bn, $65.5bn coming from external backers, and has so far put up $5bn for the second Vision Fund despite it so far failing to lure limited partners for the vehicle.
The corporate announced in April this year that it expected to record some $16.8bn in paper losses from its Vision Fund investments in that full fiscal year, partly due to the failure of workspace provider WeWork to float and the bankruptcies of portfolio companies OneWeb and Brandless.
SoftBank said in its half fiscal year results, released this morning, that it recorded a $3.5bn gain in the combined valuations of its Vision Fund I portfolio companies in that period.
Although its consumer-facing companies have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic, other Vision Fund investees have benefitted from the uptick in use of digital health products, the lack of brick-and-mortar competition or an increase in the use of cloud-based services.
Vision Fund II recorded a $5bn increase in the value of its shareholding in the past six months, chiefly from its investment in KE Holdings, the holding company for real estate brokerage Beike Zhaofang, which has seen its share price more than double since its $2.1bn initial public offering in August.
The second Vision Fund has also been increasingly active in the past month, leading a $180m round for online education provider VIPThink and a $120m round for restaurant ordering technology producer Ordermark, and backing nine-figure rounds for GetYourGuide, Getaround and Whoop.
