Japan-based telecommunications and internet group SoftBank has put another $4.5bn into its Vision Fund, bringing the vehicle’s total capital to $97.7bn, it revealed in its quarterly earnings report.
The additional money was invested at some point during Q3 2017, though SoftBank did not offer any details. The fund is targeting a final close of $100bn which it hopes to achieve by the end of 2017.
The disclosure follows a report last month that Mumtalakat, the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain, was interested in committing capital to the fund, which reached a $93bn first close in May this year.
SoftBank initially committed $25bn to in the fund, and the vehicle’s limited partners include consumer electronics companies Apple and Sharp, mobile chipmaker Qualcomm and contract manufacturer Foxconn.
The fund also counts Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund, which committed $45bn, and Abu Dhabi state-owned Mubadala Investment Company, which put in $15bn, among its backers.
Masayoshi Son, founder and chief executive of SoftBank, claimed last month that the fund had already achieved a paper profit of $3bn, the equivalent of a 22% return on investment.
The fund has deployed $18.4bn to date, according to the quarterly earnings report, carrying at $20.2bn. Its portfolio businesses include graphics chipmaker Nvidia, biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences and co-working space operator WeWork.
The earnings report also showed that the Vision Fund has taken on $2.2bn in the form of short-term interest-bearing debt.