Achieved Net Profit of 50.43 Trillion KRW in 2020
Highest Record Among Japanese Companies Ever
Ranked 3rd Last Year by Net Profit After Apple and Aramco
[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] SoftBank Group, led by Chairman Son Jeong-ui, is estimated to have posted a net profit exceeding 50 trillion won last year. This ranks third in the world, following the United States' Apple and Saudi Aramco. Chairman Son, who suffered humiliation from consecutive investment failures, has avenged himself in just one year.
On the 12th, Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that SoftBank's net profit for the 2020 fiscal year (ending in March), scheduled to be announced that afternoon, is expected to exceed 4.9 trillion yen (approximately 50.43 trillion won).
This ranks third among global companies last year, following the US's Apple (about 6.1905 trillion yen) and Saudi Aramco (about 5.2618 trillion yen). It is twice the net profit earned by Samsung Electronics last year (about 26.4078 trillion won). It is the largest scale ever for a Japanese company. The previous record was 2.5 trillion yen recorded by Toyota in 2017.
In terms of net profit, it surpassed US Microsoft (4.7882 trillion yen), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (4.7499 trillion yen), Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (4.5399 trillion yen), and Google (4.2994 trillion yen).
The performance of SoftBank was driven by investment returns managed by the Vision Fund. In the 2019 fiscal year, SoftBank recorded a historic loss of 961.5 billion yen due to Chairman Son's consecutive investment failures. The Vision Fund, which had been a burden for SoftBank, became a golden goose in just one year.
In particular, the global stock market boom significantly increased investment returns as companies invested in by SoftBank Group achieved high valuations in their initial public offerings (IPOs). Representative examples include Coupang, a Korean e-commerce company in which Chairman Son holds a 38% stake, and DoorDash, a US food delivery service app, both of which successfully listed on the US stock market. Additionally, the corporate values of China's ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, Southeast Asia's ride-sharing service Grab, and the short video sharing app TikTok, which features videos around 15 seconds long, also rose significantly.
The first Vision Fund, launched in 2017, invested in a total of 92 companies and completed capital recovery from 10 of them by the end of last year. The second Vision Fund, launched last year, has invested in 26 companies so far and manages a total of 100 billion dollars (approximately 114 trillion won) in funds.
Since IPOs of companies invested in by the Vision Fund are scheduled one after another this year as well, there are expectations that SoftBank will continue to record record-breaking net profits.
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