SoftBank’s $17.7 billion profit sets new record in Japan

SoftBank Group Corp. reported the highest ever quarterly profit for a Japanese company thanks to an unprecedented windfall from its investment business.

Net income was 1.93 trillion yen ($17.7 billion) for the three months ended March 31, the most for a listed Japanese company dating back to 1990, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Most of it came from SoftBank’s Vision Fund investment arm, whose 2.3 trillion yen profit was supercharged by the successful initial public offering of Coupang Inc. in March.

Masayoshi Son’s investment business went from being the source of the biggest loss in SoftBank’s history just a year ago to the main driver of earnings.