13 in April, Softbank group of Japan released the financial forecast for fiscal year 20 19 (April1September-March 3, 20201). According to the report, considering the deterioration of the current market environment, it is expected that there will be an operating loss of10.35 trillion yen (about 89 billion yuan) in fiscal year 20 19. In contrast, the company's operating profit in the same period last year was 2.07 trillion yen (about 65.438+0365 billion yuan).
This will be the highest loss since the listing of 1994, and the first loss of the whole group since 15 after the first annual net loss at the end of March 2005. Softbank's estimated net loss in fiscal year 20 19 will reach 750 billion yen, while its profit in the same period last year was 1.4 1 trillion yen.
"In view of the deterioration of the current market environment, these forecasts aim to provide investors with timely information about financial performance expectations." Softbank said in a statement.
Most of the operating losses come from Vision Fund (Vision? Fund) will have a loss of 1.8 trillion yen, and 800 billion yen belongs to Softbank's own investment loss. The increase in investment income related to Alibaba will offset some of the losses.
Vision Fund, established on 20 17, is the largest science and technology investment fund in the world, and its main investors are sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As of February last year, 65438, the fund held shares in 88 companies, including WeWork, Uber and ByteDance.
The second phase of the Vision Fund, which Sun Zhengyi planned to start in August last year, will also be frozen. After WeWork's investment failed, financing has been very difficult, and the company has said that it will invest with its own funds.
Softbank has written down the investment value of some companies, including WeWork, an office leasing startup, and OneWeb, a satellite operator that filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
Since WeWork's initial public offering (IPO) and Softbank's subsequent bail-out failed last year, the Japanese group has been hit one after another. Softbank has made a big bet on some economic start-ups that allow people to share the right to use their offices or cars. However, the coronavirus epidemic has curbed unnecessary human interaction, and these investments have also been hit hard.
This is more and more like the perfect storm of Softbank? Singapore United First Partner Company (United? First of all? Justin Tang, head of Asian research at Partners (Justin? Tang) said, "The question is whether there will be more blows in the future."
According to the previous financial report, Vision Fund may write down assets of about 1 trillion yen in the March quarter. Softbank did not list all the startups that were hit in detail.
When the virus broke out, investors became increasingly worried about the stability of Sun Zhengyi's business empire and his $654.38 billion vision fund. The company's share price once fell by more than 50% from its peak this year, and Softbank's credit default swap (CDS) soared to the highest level in about 10 years.
Sun Zhengyi was also under unusual pressure from some investors. Elliott management company (Elliott? The management is putting pressure on him to change his corporate governance and investment practices.
As a coping strategy, Softbank launched a plan in March to sell about $4 1 billion of assets for stock repurchase and debt repayment. Is the chief financial officer of Softbank fierce? Goto) said in early April that the company would stick to its plan despite the market turmoil caused by the global epidemic. In addition, Softbank also plans to sell Alibaba Group shares worth $654.38+0.4 billion to get out of trouble.
"This will make it more urgent for Softbank to sell assets." ? Koji, head of consulting firm Kachitas? Hirai said.
This is a dramatic change for the 62-year-old son. Just two months ago, he said in Tokyo that Softbank's business was improving after WeWork failed. "After a hard winter, there will always be spring." He said at the time.
He stressed that the share price of Uber, in which Softbank holds a large number of shares, has soared, and the company is likely to profit from this part of the shares. He also announced that WeWork would make a comeback.
But the outbreak of coronavirus disrupted these plans. Due to the epidemic prevention and control, people from China to the United States no longer use the office. The business of taxi software company (Softbank holds shares in the world's four major taxi companies) has also evaporated a lot. Even Uber? CEO Dara Kosrosasi (Dara? Khosrowshahi) publicly declared, "I won't let my children take Uber."
Another trouble for Softbank is that it has invested $654.38+0.5 billion in hotel reservation service company Oyo. With the stagnation of global tourism, the company's business model is being impacted.
Ritesh agarwal, founder and CEO of this booking service company? Agarwal) said in April that in response to the epidemic, the company will temporarily lay off employees in countries outside India.
To make matters more complicated, 26-year-old agarwal also borrowed about $2 billion to increase his shares in the company, and Masayoshi Son personally guaranteed the loan.
Softbank's controversial accounting practices have also exacerbated the volatility of its earnings. When the valuation of the founding company rose, the Vision Foundation recorded profits, but these profits were only on the books and no shares were sold. In the early days of the fund, WeWork and Oyo both contributed profits.
Now, as the assets are written down again, the losses that Sun Zhengyi called the company's future vision fund are accumulating. According to Bloomberg statistics, since Softbank began to publish its results (including the latest quarterly forecast), the fund has accumulated losses of 240 billion yen.
After Softbank removed Sprint, an American subsidiary, from its balance sheet, it is estimated that the sales in fiscal year 20 19 will drop by about 36% to 6. 15 trillion yen. Sprint has merged with T-Mobile.
"Coronavirus is the last blow, but poor investment and misjudgment are the beginning." ? Hirai said.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.