Softbank has a difficult quarter

China investments drag down report

TOKYO — Softbank Group Corp. sank into red ink for the July-september period, dragged down by losses on its investments in China, the Japanese technology conglomerate said Monday.

Softbank reported a $3.5 billion loss for the fiscal second quarter, compared to a $5.5 billion profit recorded the same period the previous year.

Quarterly sales grew 11 percent to $13 billion.

Tokyo-based Softbank said its investment portfolio called Vision Fund suffered losses, including the value of its stake in South Korean online retailer Coupang. But it said it booked gains on its shares in Doordash, an online food-ordering service based in San Francisco.

Softbank said the recent crackdown in China on the technology sector weighed on Chinese share prices.

Softbank’s Vision Fund was hit by a $9 billion loss in the July-september quarter, according to its chief executive, Masayoshi Son.

Son, who founded the company, acknowledged the latest losses were a big contrast to the booming results it reported for the previous fiscal year.

He said one big factor was a sharp drop in the share price of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, in which Softbank is a shareholder.

But he stressed Softbank’s main business was shifting to the Vision Fund and becoming less dependent on Alibaba’s performance. However, Vision Fund’s Chinese investments also suffered.

Son said Vision Fund’s investments overall were gaining value.

Its portfolio has been constantly changing. It once owned U.S. mobile company Sprint, but Sprint has merged with T-mobile, in which Softbank remains an investor.

Softbank has a Japanese mobile carrier under its wing that was the first to offer the iphone in the Japanese market.