No one expected that under the uncontrollable factors of the epidemic, investment masters would also fall a big frustration.
mentions Masayoshi Son . Many people have the impression of being a small Japanese and having an intimate relationship with Jack Ma and . Masayoshi Son has long been famous in the investment industry and is regarded by many people as a "investment master".
However, some people think that Masayoshi Son is a bet investment, and bet against one treasure, and he wins the whole game, and he feels like "a blind cat hits a dead mouse". For example, since the mid-1990s, Masayoshi Son spent billions of dollars on hundreds of startup technology companies, and in the end the Yahoo family made him make a fortune. After
, I talked with Jack Ma for a few minutes and invested 20 million yuan in , which had just been established. According to Masayoshi Son, the Internet has changed too quickly to go the ordinary path.
If Masayoshi Son successfully invests in Yahoo and Ali , it is attributed to courage and luck, then he is too underestimated. Before investing, Masayoshi Son would do very detailed market research and list various standards, such as whether he has a great future in development, whether he can become the first, whether others can imitate, etc. Only after a series of comparative research can he make a careful decision.
SoftBank not only can invest, but also operates industry. For example, acquired Japan's Yahoo and made it the first company in Japan with a stock price of more than 100 million yen. The acquisition of Davao Fong's business in Japan has made it one of Japan's largest telecom operators.
Based on SoftBank's success in the investment world, Masayoshi Son later established SoftBank Vision Fund, raising US$100 billion in the first phase, and even Saudi and the UAE government joined in. The second phase also has tens of billions of dollars. In recent years, SoftBank Vision Fund has been a big hit in the global investment circle and has invested in hundreds of companies.
However, Masayoshi Son seems to have no previous vision. The projects he has invested in in recent years have failed a lot, causing heavy losses.
2019 fiscal year loss 1.36 trillion yen, while SoftBank Vision Fund lost more than 1.8 trillion yen (about 17.3 billion US dollars) , setting a record for the highest loss in Japanese companies in history. The main reason is that the huge losses caused by investing in the US WeWork and Uber account for more than half of its total losses.
Although profits rebounded sharply in fiscal 2020, there were nearly 5 trillion yen (about 39 billion US dollars). But unexpectedly, in 2021, Masayoshi Son broke his own loss record again. SoftBank Group lost about 1.7 trillion yen (about 90 billion yuan), equivalent to a daily loss of nearly 250 million yuan. SoftBank Vision Fund's net loss was 2.64 trillion yen (about 140 billion yuan) , which is even more terrible.
This time the huge loss was due to the investment in Korean e-commerce Coupang, China's Didi , and the stock price plummeted, including Alibaba's stock price decline by more than 50%. After Alibaba, it is difficult for Son to find the second "Ali".
The Chinese market has always been a bet by SoftBank. SoftBank has invested in many companies over the years, but it seems that it is not very lucky. html invested more than 110 billion US dollars to Didi, becoming its largest shareholder. was listed on June 30 last year. The market value growth was good, and SoftBank also made some money, but unexpectedly it was officially announced to investigate. With the removal of the APP, Didi encountered unprecedented development difficulties, and its market value fell all the way. Its current market value is only US$7.079 billion, evaporating more than 80%, and SoftBank suffered heavy losses.
also had a lot of bet on shell before, and there was a glorious period. However, with the cooling of the property market, Beike, as the largest real estate agency, has started layoffs, closures of stores, and has continuously contracted its scale, and its market value has evaporated a lot, and it is currently only US$14.9 billion.
data shows that the total market value of Internet companies listed in China at the end of March is less than 10 trillion yuan, which can be said to be terrible. One of the industries that Son invests the most in China is the Internet.
What should SoftBank do in the face of such a huge loss? It is understood that every time SoftBank Group faces a crisis, it almost chooses to sell Alibaba and cash out to "rescue itself". The huge loss in fiscal year 2019, SoftBank sold Alibaba shares and cashed out $13 billion, and then cashed out another $14 billion in 2020. Many people say that SoftBank used Alibaba as an ATM.
At present, Softbank holds 24.8% of Alibaba's shares and is still the largest shareholder. Over the past year, Alibaba's market value has evaporated by more than 50%. If cashing out now is not cost-effective, but compared with SoftBank's previous investment amount, it is still a big profit. It is reported that SoftBank may have reduced its holdings by 20 million shares in the fourth quarter of last year.
Masayoshi Son's investment myth seems to be about to be shattered. As the largest shareholder of Alibaba and Didi, SoftBank fell into a big frustration again.
