In fiscal year 2019, Softbank Group had a net loss of 700 billion yen, equivalent to RMB 40.7 billion, which was the largest loss in the 15 years since its listing, and it was also the first annual loss for Softbank. By 2020, SoftBank Group will "return from the dead", with a net profit of 4.9 trillion yen, equivalent to 294.8 billion yuan.
From a loss of 40.7 billion to a net profit of 294.8 billion, it is the founder of Softbank Group Sun Zhengyi who has created such a "myth".
In 2020, what did Sun Zhengyi do to make SoftBank, which lost 1.35 trillion yen, go from "hell" to "heaven"?
1. The crazy Masayoshi Son, the $100 billion Vision Fund
When it comes to Masayoshi Son, everyone will think of Jack Ma . In 2000, Ma Yun and Masayoshi Son met for the first time at an IT start-up interview. Masayoshi Son is a vicious and decisive person. He saw through Jack Ma Alibaba 's future "money scene" in just 6 minutes, and immediately decided to invest 40 million US dollars in Alibaba , accounting for 49% of the shares. Feeling that there is no shortage of so much money in his hand, Sun Zhengyi finally invested 20 million US dollars in and invested in Alibaba, accounting for 34% of the shares.
This is an investment that makes Masayoshi Son "God".
In September 2014, Alibaba was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and the $20 million invested by Sun Zhengyi became $50 billion, an increase of 4,000 times.
In this year, Masayoshi Son was named " Japan's richest man".
Of course, Sun Zhengyi's proud investment is not only Alibaba , such as Yahoo, Sina, Netease , PPTV, Renren , Shanda Network, etc.
In 2016, Masayoshi Son went to Saudi Arabia to raise money for SoftBank's Vision Fund.On the private jet , Sun Zhengyi read the PPT to be displayed to investors in the Middle East. The PPT expects to raise and the scale of is 30 billion US dollars, which has exceeded the management of Blackstone , the largest private equity firm in the world at that time. scale. And Sun Zhengyi thought for a moment, and actually said to assistant : The scale of the fundraising will be changed from 30 billion US dollars to 100 billion US dollars. The assistant wondered if he had heard it wrong, knowing that from 2014 to 2016, the total amount of funds raised by the venture capital industry in the United States was only $110 billion.
But Sun Zhengyi smiled and said: Life is short, and the pattern should be big.
In 2017, the Vision Fund, which successfully raised 100 billion yuan, began to "set sail" with Masayoshi Son, becoming a formidable force in the global venture capital field.
The general investment process of venture capital is to make small-scale investment in small-scale enterprises, and then make additional investment after the enterprise becomes larger.
But Masayoshi Son's "crazy" does not allow him to be so conservative. The interest of 100 billion US dollars a day is close to tens of millions of dollars, which also urges him to make quick profits. Masayoshi Son invests huge amounts of money in the most successful technology companies in the designated fields. Sun Zhengyi just wants to prove that he can eat into a fat man in one breath?
From 2017 to 2019, the Vision Fund has invested in 86 companies.
shared office unicorn , WeWork: $18.5 billion;
car-sharing unicorn, Uber: $9.3 billion;
mobile phone chip design unicorn, ARM: $8.2 billion.
The Vision Fund is like a giant whale, every single one it wants to subvert the entire industry.
However, for his fanatical investment, has the market returned him a good return?
Losses of 16.7% in the second and third years, what about Sun Zhengyi's "investment myth"?
In the first half of 2020 alone, three companies invested by Sun Zhengyi went bankrupt. Among them, German payment giant Wirecard filed for bankruptcy, and SoftBank's direct loss was 900 million euros; American e-commerce platform Brandless collapsed, and Softbank lost another 240 million US dollars; star startup Oneweb filed for bankruptcy protection, and Softbank previously invested 20 million. Billions of dollars were lost.
In 2019, WeWork, which was once favored by Sun Zhengyi and called "the next Alibaba ", failed to go public. This "giant baby" raised by Sun Zhengyi was also dissatisfied with SoftBank's failure to fulfill the equity of 3 billion US dollars. The offer to acquire brought Sun Zhengyi to court.
In an interview with the media, Masayoshi Son admitted that 15 of the 86 companies invested by the Vision Fund may go bankrupt.
In addition to bankruptcy, many companies invested by the Vision Fund have experienced layoffs to varying degrees.
Among them, the American taxi-sharing platform Getaround laid off 25% of its staff, and the smart pizza takeaway company Zume laid off 80% of its staff. This kind of large-scale layoffs is either broken or on the verge of bankruptcy. In short, it is not optimistic.
In April 2020, SoftBank's 2019 annual report was released, and the entire market was shocked.
In fiscal 2019, the Vision Fund shrunk by 1.8 trillion yen, equivalent to $16.7 billion. Three years later, Vision Fund investors lost 16.7%. Although people have made mistakes and horses have made mistakes, it seems that Sun Zhengyi made a big mistake this time. Sun Zhengyi fell from "Japan's richest man" to "Japan's first negative".
I don't know how Saudi Crown Prince Salman, the largest investor in the Vision Fund at the time, thought.
3. In 2020, the Vision Fund "self-healed"
In order to save himself, Sun Zhengyi started a strong man to break his wrist.
The first is to sell stocks. If there is no way to mobilize enough liquidity , Softbank may not be able to support it until the next fiscal year.
Masayoshi Son first sold Alibaba stock with the most liquidity and the strongest willingness to take over the market, and Masayoshi Son recovered US$15.4 billion for this one transaction alone.
Subsequently, Sun Zhengyi successively sold off part of the shares of T-Mobile, the third largest mobile communication operator in the United States, and ARM, a British chip design company.
In addition to selling equity, Sun Zhengyi established a stock and derivatives investment department in July 2020, investing in some Chinese Internet concept stocks with good liquidity that can be cashed at any time, such as iQiyi, Bilibili, Pinduoduo and so on.
Masayoshi Son's Vision Fund has transformed from an primary market venture capital fund that invests in start-ups into an private equity fund that participates in secondary market transactions. Masayoshi Son explained that he only wants to invest in the best companies in the designated field. , as for whether the other party is listed, he does not care.
It is also true that when Sun Zhengyi invested in WeWork at a valuation of
And the most gratifying thing for Masayoshi Son is that the startup companies he invested in have "rejuvenated", and the Vision Fund has begun to "self-heal".
In March 2020, Sun Zhengyi invested 1 billion US dollars, equivalent to 14 billion yuan, in Ziroom and Shell platforms under Lianjia respectively, accounting for 7.1% of the shares. In August 2020, Shell was listed in the United States as the first share of the "residential service platform", with an increase of 87.2% on the day of listing. At its peak, Shell's market value exceeded 660 billion yuan.In just half a year, the 14 billion yuan invested by Sun Zhengyi became 47 billion yuan.
At the end of 2020, DoorDash, an American catering platform, was successfully listed, bringing about US$11 billion in floating profit to Masayoshi Son and the Vision Fund after the listing.
In addition, the US taxi company Uber and the Korean e-commerce giant Coupang have been listed one after another, bringing new vitality to the Vision Fund.
SoftBank's 2020 annual report was released, with a net profit of 4.9879 trillion yen, equivalent to 294.8 billion yuan. Masayoshi Son has returned to the throne of Japan's richest man, and SoftBank has become the third most profitable company in the world.
At this point, Masayoshi Son can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
4. Conclusion
Everything in this world is changing, the only constant is the change itself. In just one year, Sun Zhengyi returned from "Japan's first negative" to "Japan's richest man" with a worth of 44.6 billion US dollars, ranking 33rd on the world's richest list.
Masayoshi Son's success has elements of luck, but more original vision, and bold actions.
Today's Masayoshi Son is just over 60 years old, and his ambitions and ambitions remain undiminished.
Some people say that Masayoshi Son is half Jack Ma and half Soros. Half are crazy entrepreneurs, half are crazy investors.
Of course, taken together, that is 100% "crazy" Masayoshi Son.
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