SoftBank Group Corp., the biggest shareholder in Coupang Inc., stands to reap an enormous windfall when the South Korean e-commerce leader goes public this week, giving founder Masayoshi Son further evidence his often-criticized startup bets are paying off.
The Japanese company owns about 35% of the startup and could report an unrealized gain of as much as $16 billion after Coupang raised the target price range for its initial public offering. That would be the SoftBank Vision Fund’s largest-ever startup profit booked in a single quarter since it began reporting results in 2017.
Son has come under heavy criticism for missteps in backing fledgling companies, including WeWork and more recently Greensill Capital. But the South Korean startup adds to a string of hits that have compensated for those losses and pushed his Vision Fund to profit records in the last two quarters. If Coupang succeeds in its public debut, SoftBank’s windfall could exceed the $11 billion it reported from DoorDash Inc.’s December IPO.
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