SoftBank has sold shares of US tech giants such as Facebook, Microsoft, Alphabet and Netflix, according to its latest financial report released Tuesday.
The Tokyo-based conglomerate invests in publicly traded stocks through its SB Northstar trading unit and provides a breakdown of the unit’s portfolio of companies in its quarterly results.
Facebook, Microsoft, Alphabet and Netflix were included in SB Northstar’s portfolio at the end of March, but were absent from the list at the end of the April-June quarter, suggesting a reduction or a complete download of the holdings.
At the end of March, SoftBank had $ 3.1 billion in Facebook shares, $ 1 billion in Microsoft shares, $ 575 million in Alphabet shares, and $ 382 million in Netflix shares. But all four were not included in his June report.
SoftBank reduced the size of its stake in Amazon from $ 6.2 billion to $ 5.6 billion, according to filings.
In total, SB Northstar had $ 13.6 billion worth of company stakes at the end of June, up from $ 19 billion at the end of March.
A SoftBank spokesperson pointed to the filings to CNBC when asked about the tech stock dump, but declined to comment further.
Last September, The Financial Times reported that SoftBank was the mysterious “whale of the Nasdaq” buying billions of dollars in call options, betting that stocks would rise.
The report quoted a source as saying that SoftBank had been buying options in big tech names like Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix, which could raise valuations in the sector. SoftBank declined to comment on the report at the time.
SoftBank’s overall net profit for its fiscal first quarter fell 39% year-on-year to 762 billion Japanese yen ($ 6.9 billion) as Chinese regulators cracked down on Alibaba, its biggest bet, and other companies in the market. wallet like Didi.
SoftBank Vision Fund, a dedicated technology investment fund, posted a profit of $ 2.1 billion as the portfolio companies are listed on the equity markets.
