TOKYO, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- SoftBank Group Corp. said Wednesday its group net profit increased 51.6 percent in the April-December period owing to gains from investments through its Saudi-backed Vision Fund, which helped offset market losses connected to U.S. chipmaker Nvidia.
The Tokyo-based conglomerate said its group net profit in the recording period came in at 1.54 trillion yen (14.04 billion U.S. dollars), with the rise attributed to gains made by tech firms invested in by its Vision Fund, including Uber Technologies, WeWork Cos, Nvidia and chip designer ARM.
The telecommunications and internet behemoth, while not announcing a guidance for the full current fiscal year through March, said its group operating profit jumped 61.8 percent to 1.86 trillion yen (16.95 billion U.S. dollars), based on sales of 7.17 trillion yen (65.36 billion U.S. dollars), which is an increase of 5.2 percent.
Including the Vision Fund, launched last year with more than 90 billion U.S. dollars in capital, SoftBank Group's fund management operations accounted for 808.79 billion yen (7.37 billion U.S. dollars) of its 1.86 trillion yen (16.95 billion U.S. dollars) in operating profit, SoftBank Group Corp. said.
At the end of the October-December period, the Vision Fund had invested 45.5 billion U.S. dollars in 49 firms, including ride-hailing startups and a shared workspace provider, with the investments valued at 55.3 billion U.S. dollars, according to SoftBank Group's figures.
Losses made by Nvidia, owing to slumping demand for gaming chips, were offset by the firm's other fund managed operations, SoftBank Group said.
On Wednesday, SoftBank Group announced a 600 billion yen (5.5 billion U.S. dollar) share buyback, saying it would repurchase 112 million shares over the the next 11 months. This comprises around 10.3 percent of its total outstanding shares.
SoftBank Group has been successful in increasing its valuations for its tech-based investments and the buyback plan comes after 2.35 trillion yen (21.41 billion U.S. dollars) was raised in December by listing about one-third of the shares in Japan-based telecommunication firm SoftBank Corp.
On Tuesday, SoftBank Corp. announced a 24 percent jump in its quarterly operating profit. Its operating profit in the October-December quarter came in at 438.3 billion yen (3.99 billion U.S. dollars) compared to 274 billion yen (2.49 billion U.S. dollars) booked a year earlier, it said.
