SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund, the world’s largest technology investor, is set to be a big winner on Uber Technologies Inc.’s blockbuster IPO this week, with a paper profit of roughly $3 billion in about 16 months.
Uber is currently anticipating a valuation of about $80 billion and $90 billion when its shares begin trading Friday. When SoftBank 9984, +0.04% bought into the company in early 2018, writing a $7.7 billion check for a roughly 15% stake, Uber had been reeling from a series of crises and was valued at around $48 billion. The Japanese conglomerate managed to pay roughly 25% below the price paid by other investors who had purchased Uber shares in 2016.
The big gain represents one of the biggest triumphs so far for the $100 billion Vision Fund, which was launched in spring 2017. It could aid its aggressive growth plans, including a possible IPO of its current fund and raising another one of the same size or larger.
Others have done even better on Uber. Early investors like Benchmark, Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. —which invested both its own money and on behalf of clients—also scored big gains, in some cases making many multiples of their original investments years earlier.
Either way, the Vision Fund is poised to be one of the big beneficiaries from what’s shaping up to be a record year for initial public offerings. SoftBank’s roughly $300 million investment in Guardant Health Inc., which went public in October 2018, is now valued at more than six times that. The fund is an investor in Slack Technologies Inc. and WeWork Cos., both of which are preparing for big 2019 debuts.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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