Japan's SoftBank Group trims investment losses but remains in red for fiscal year

TOKYO (AP) — SoftBank Group trimmed its losses for the fiscal year through March to about a quarter of the red ink it racked up a year earlier, as its investment losses declined, the Japanese technology company said Monday.

Annual sales at Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. rose 2.8% to 6.76 trillion yen ($43 billion). Losses for the fiscal year sank to 227.6 billion yen ($1.5 billion) from a 970 billion yen loss in the previous year.

By quarter, SoftBank Group, which invests in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous driving and other technology, recorded its second straight quarterly profit, at 231 billion yen ($1.5 billion) for January-March, a turnaround from a 57.6 billion yen loss a year earlier.

Its two latest quarters in the black followed four straight quarters of losses.

Investment losses for the fiscal year included Alibaba, a Chinese technology company with e-commerce, cloud computing and digital media operations, which offset gains from its holdings in T- Mobile.