SoftBank expected to book $1.87 billion profit on IPOs

By Anton Bridge

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group is expected to report a 287 billion yen ($1.87 billion) quarterly profit on Tuesday, boosted by successful portfolio company listings and a stronger yen.

Analysts are also looking out for signs of new investment momentum driven by SoftBank's robust balance sheet and management's bullish stance on artificial intelligence (AI).

The net profit forecast for July-September is based on the average of four analyst estimates compiled by the London Stock Exchange Group, and compares with a loss of 931 billion yen in the same period last year.

MST analyst David Gibson estimates an investment gain of $3.9 billion for the quarter, with the IPOs of two Indian companies - Brainbees Solutions and Ola Electric - seen generating income of $0.9 billion and $1 billion, respectively.

A drop of around 10% in the value of the dollar versus the yen over the period is expected to boost SoftBank's bottom line.

Analysts are eagerly awaiting SoftBank's investment plans, after Founder and Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son told an investment summit in Saudi Arabia last month that he was saving tens of billion dollars for the next big move.

The pace of SoftBank's new investments is already trending upward, reaching $1.9 billion in the April-June quarter, up from $0.3 billion in January-March. In early October, SoftBank also joined in the latest funding round for ChatGPT operator OpenAI.

Analysts are particularly interested in SoftBank's reported efforts to manufacture AI chips to rival market leader Nvidia, potentially through a collaboration between chip designer Arm, in which it holds a 90% stake, and recently acquired chip manufacturer Graphcore.

They note that SoftBank made a deal with Arm to license its intellectual property in the most recent quarter, worth $43.2 million in revenue, which may be related.

In addition, SoftBank's sound financial position makes a large-scale investment possible.

It's balance sheet is "near the strongest it has been over the past five years", wrote Morningstar analyst Dan Baker in a note, adding that both S&P Global Ratings and Japan Credit Rating Agency upgraded their SoftBank credit ratings earlier this year.

Although SoftBank announced a $3.4 billion share buyback three months ago, this was substantially below what some analysts had called for and leaves ample room for further investment, they added.

($1 = 153.3100 yen)

(This story has been corrected to say that stronger yen benefits SoftBank's profits in paragraphs 1 and 5)

(Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by Nicholas Yong)