SoftBank Loses Nearly $6 Billion in Quarter as Investments Suffer

TOKYO—Japanese technology investor

SoftBank Group Corp.

9984 -1.01%

said it fell back into the red in the three months to December as its investment vehicles posted a loss of nearly $6 billion.

SoftBank on Tuesday posted a net loss of ¥783.4 billion, equivalent to about $5.9 billion, for the quarter ended Dec. 31.

The company’s earnings have swung widely in the past quarters. After posting a record loss of more than ¥3 trillion in the April-June quarter, it reported a ¥3 trillion profit in the quarter ending in September thanks to profits from unwinding its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

BABA -0.83%

In the three months to December, SoftBank lost a collective $5.8 billion in its Vision Fund 1, Vision Fund 2 and Latin American funds, according to company figures. That compares with a $10 billion loss in the previous quarter.

The company has shifted to a defensive strategy in making new investments after its portfolio was hit hard by stock market declines, triggered by higher interest rates and China’s technology crackdown.

Chief Executive

Masayoshi Son

has said he wouldn’t speak at quarterly earnings presentations for the time being because he said he wanted to focus on Arm, a U.K. chip-design company that SoftBank hopes to spin off in a public offering by March 2024.

SoftBank’s shares fell 1% on Tuesday in Tokyo trading, which ended before the release of the results.

Write to Megumi Fujikawa at megumi.fujikawa@wsj.com

Masayoshi Son, chief executive of SoftBank Group, in Yokohama, Japan, in 2020.