SoftBank is sitting on trading gains of about $4bn after founder Masayoshi Son drove aggressive bets on equity derivatives that helped propel the US stock market to record highs, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The high-risk strategy has been built up over the past few months, these people said, with the Japanese conglomerate spending about $4bn on options premiums focused on tech stocks over that time.
Aside from a sharp pullback in equity markets at the end of last week, the huge derivatives bet on selected US stocks has worked, leaving SoftBank with large but as yet unrealised profits. However, a continued fall in the US stock market could eat away at SoftBank’s returns.