Japan-based telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund is pushing some of its larger portfolio companies to launch initial public offerings, sources familiar with SoftBank’s strategy told Nikkei yesterday.
Several Vision Fund portfolio companies have agreed to list on public markets through flotations or reverse mergers in the past two years, including ride hailing service Uber, dynamic glass producer View and online car dealership Auto1 and food delivery service DoorDash.
However, digital media group ByteDance, on-demand ride providers Didi Chuxing and Grab, trucking services platform Manbang Group and e-commerce marketplaces Tokopedia and Coupang have been among its most highly valued recipients of investment and are still private.
An executive at a Vision Fund portfolio company told Nikkei: “They are being fairly transparent in their agenda that they would like everybody to list,” adding: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you should take it.”
The news comes as SoftBank announced net sales of approximately $39.2bn for the nine months ending December 2020 and $29.3bn in net income over the same period.
The company’s financial results claimed SoftBank has generated $26.2bn of financial gains through Vision Fund 1 and 2 investments in the last nine months of 2020, more than 90% of which remain unrealised and are reflections of the gains in the valuation of their portfolio companies.
