SoftBank Group quarterly profit exceeds expectations, stock price soars 13% to reach a new high.

SoftBank Group's stock price rose by 13% on Friday, reaching a new all-time high. This was after the company announced first quarter profits for the 2024 fiscal year that far exceeded expectations. This marks the fourth consecutive trading day of gains for the Japanese investment company, and it had already reached a record high before the financial report was released. SoftBank reported a profit of 421.8 billion yen from April to June, significantly surpassing the general expectation of 127.6 billion yen. This is the second consecutive quarter of profit for the investment group, a stark contrast to the 174.28 billion yen loss in the same period last year. The Japanese giant announced on Thursday that its Vision Fund had increased in value by $4.8 billion, marking the largest increase since June 2021. In the first quarter of the financial year ending in June, the Vision Fund division reported a profit of 451.4 billion yen, a strong turnaround from the loss in the same period last year. The growth was attributed to investment returns from companies such as Singaporean ride-hailing platform Grab, Indian food delivery giant Swiggy, as well as others including chip design company Arm Holdings, game software developer Animoca Brands, and internet tech giant ByteDance. Multiple companies under the investment group are expected to go public this year, including Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart, which submitted an IPO application on July 29 with a proposed valuation of 21.5 billion rupees. Other upcoming IPOs include Japanese mobile payment service operator PayPay, Swedish financial services company Klarna, and travel app Klook.