On September 14, the Wall Street Journal quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that SoftBank is considering using its own cash to set up its third SoftBank Vision Fund, and is also considering injecting more funds into the second phase of Vision, and a decision will be

SoftBank Group Founder and CEO Masayoshi Son .

A month ago, the founder of SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son, was reflecting on his desire for huge profits and chose to "strengthen the belt to spend the winter." But a month later, Masayoshi Son broke out of his original defensive strategy and continued to expand his vision fund map that made his career suffer a "Waterloo".

htmlOn September 14, the " Wall Street Journal " quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that SoftBank (Softbank) is considering using its own cash to set up a third SoftBank Vision Fund, and is also considering injecting more funds into the second phase of Vision, and a decision will be made in the next few months.

After Masayoshi Son returned to his "bold and radical" style, he also attracted criticism as before. Many analysts believe that instead of putting their hopes on the third fund, it is better to "focus on" SoftBank Fund's second phase fund. As Son said in his personal opinion in the financial report released a month ago, reducing unnecessary investments, there are many "golden eggs" in the existing "basket".

Masayoshi Son's "new way out" is unknown whether it will be effective in improving the dilemma, but the resistance in front of him is huge.

Currently, SoftBank's liquidity has not yet been greatly improved. SoftBank Group released its financial report on August 8, recording the largest single-quarter loss of 3.1627 trillion yen (about US$23.4 billion) in the company's 40 years since its establishment, or reaching a debt level that will only be achieved in an emergency, and it has to take some extraordinary measures to survive the winter. These "extraordinary means" simply include significantly reducing costs, selling all available assets, and strictly limiting new investments.

To appease investors, reduce concerns about SoftBank cash flow . SoftBank Group did not hesitate to disagree and announced the early settlement of the Alibaba forward contract (a financial derivative) and cashed out US$34.5 billion. SoftBank Group CFO Yoshimitsu Goto said in an interview with the UK's " Financial Times " not long ago, "As one of the companies with the highest leverage ratio of in Japan, SoftBank Group hopes to reassure investors that the group does not need extra cash to repurchase Alibaba shares in the future." In the past, in order to avoid unnecessary impact on Alibaba's stock price, SoftBank Group has been completing its sales plan in a "quiet" manner.

In addition, with the huge losses of SoftBank’s two-phase funds, the fundraising of new funds will become very difficult. By the end of June, SoftBank Vision funds had not recovered their capital (excluding withdrawal). Vision Fund held a total of 80 investments in the first phase (excluding exits), with an investment cost of US$68.1 billion, and an investment return of only US$66.3 billion. Vision Fund held 269 investments in the second phase, with a total cost of US$48.2 billion, and a cumulative investment return of only US$37.2 billion. After the first phase of the vision fund, the largest LP behind it (limited partner, pointed out the investor) Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund has a lot of complaints and has not appeared on the LP list of the second phase of the fund. In the case of unfavorable fundraising in the second phase of Vision Fund, most of the funds were eventually funded independently by SoftBank, and the scale also shrank from US$97 billion in the first phase to half.

Now, the Vision Fund has caused SoftBank Group’s largest single-quarter loss. People familiar with the matter said that SoftBank may set up a third Vision Fund through its own funds.

In previous disclosures, SoftBank Group's funds are mainly used to repay debts and stock repurchase plans to maintain the stability of its share price. Now that the third fund is established through "own funds", its size will undoubtedly once again trigger investors' concerns about SoftBank's liquidity.

analysts believe that SoftBank’s current options are already very limited, and SoftBank Group’s precious “own funds” will flow back to the startup company again, which disappoints the market. However, from an optimistic perspective, SoftBank is still clearing its assets during the same period, and its chip manufacturer ARM is also planning an IPO, including the holdings of Japan Telecom shares, which can also generate certain cash flow.

According to the latest financial report data, SoftBank Group held approximately US$42.5 billion in cash and equivalents as of the end of June.

The establishment of a third fund may be more in line with Masayoshi Son's interests. People familiar with the matter revealed that the huge losses of the Vision Fund in the past have resulted in poor employee salaries.It is understood that in the first phase of the fund with a scale of 100 billion US dollars, US$44 billion is invested in the form of preferred stocks, with a promise of a coupon rate of 7%. Under the loss, SoftBank still has to pay about US$2.2 billion in dividends. In addition to including $33 billion in preferred stocks, Son made a commitment to invest $2.6 billion in personal investment. According to the investment terms, although Masayoshi Son did not contribute, as long as the fund suffered losses, the promise would become "debts", and the amount of debt is currently owed to US$2.1 billion.

Sun Masayoshi's new fund will reset the executive's compensation system and improve its incentive plan for managing the second phase of the fund.