Thank you very much for waiting, everyone. Now we would like to start SoftBank Group Corp. earnings results briefing for six-month period ended September 30, 2022. First of all, I would like to introduce today's participants. From left, we have Yoshimitsu Goto, Board Director and CFO. Kazuko Kimiwada, Senior Vice President and Head of Accounting Unit. Navneet Govil, Managing Partner and Chief Financial Officer, SoftBank Investment Advisers. Ian Thornton, Investor Relations Vice President, Arm. Today's announcement is live broadcast over internet. Now, I would like to invite Mr. Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO, SoftBank Group Corp., to make opening remarks. Mr. Son, please.
Good afternoon, everyone. This is Son, Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group Corp. Usually, I sit over here on the far left from your side and make a presentation. It's a kind of traditional way we've been doing for the announcement. This time, we have a slight change. I'm not gonna sit over here. This is the last time for me to be standing on this stage for the earnings results announcement to explain you and update you the quarterly results to you, or give you any update on the business strategy. With today's this opportunity, I would like to make it for the, make it last. In the meantime, and Mr. Goto next to me, he is going to make a presentation every time, every quarter going forward. I believe that he's very excited for that moment, but he's been silent and sitting over here just during my presentations.
I hope that he is going to make a presentation going forward, and I hope that you have a good time to listen to him going forward. Maybe you're gonna be wondered what happened. Are you unhealthy? Are you sick? Are you going to retire? You may wonder, and you may. We did receive some questions from you, but that's not true at all. I am in good health, good shape. I have very much motivated and excited about the business. I have a good spirit, and are full of energy. You may ask, "Why? If you are in good shape, why not you going to make a presentation for the quarterly results? Why this is be the last time?" Let me explain to you why is that.
That would be the last message from me in the meantime at the quarterly results. Of course, at the shareholders meeting, I'm gonna be there attending, and if there's any news or any updates that I would like to make, of course, I'm prepared to do so. Unless otherwise, I believe that this will be the last in the meantime. Let me come to the center of the podium and give you a little bit about explanations and presentation. As a businessperson, before I start at SoftBank, there was my origin. Back, when I was age of 19, I believe that was like autumn season, I was driving a car. I get off the car, and when I was walking, that was in United States. I was still a student.
I was reading a science magazine, and I was walking and reading, and I came across this photo. This looks like future cities or some kind of science. This looks quite unique and strange, and I wondered, "What is it?" I turn the next page, and I understand that this is the chip of microcomputer. That was the first time I understand that this is the microcomputer chip. This is just the size of the fingertip. Even less than one centimeter square thing. It was on the fingertip, and I was reading the article. I understood that this was computer. Back then, as a student, I was a user of the terminal by IBM large computer almost every day, and I used several types of computers.
I knew what computer is, and I knew what the computer program was, but I didn't know that it comes from this size, fingertip size, how small that is. That was not something that I imagined at that moment. This photo and the article that I read on the magazine, I couldn't stop crying. Human being actually encountered and also invented the thing that may exceed human beings' intelligence. That's something that I felt when I read this article. Actually, I was not stop crying, and I finally encountered something that exceed human being, who is actually doing the best intelligence activities of all kinds. Since then, 45 years have passed. Right now, I'm 65 years old, so almost 50 years. 46 years since then.
It was like just a flight of time and it flew, and these days, information revolution is evolving every day and growing even more. Even after 46 years since I saw the microcomputer chip first time, if it's not yet matured, but actually this big bang is growing even bigger. That's how I feel. Human beings born in this earth and tens of hundreds of thousands of years that been passed, depending on how you define humankind, but. In the past 50 years or so, information revolution, since its dawn, it spreads everywhere. Now that you cannot really live without smartphone anymore in everyday basis, that's the kind of a situation we are living right now. The center of computing has been shifted from PC era, the circuit board era.
The personal computer, PC, was a kind of the device that spreads around the people, but now that trend has been shifted to smartphone since Steve Jobs created this device to us. At the same time, center of the CPU has shifted from Intel to Arm. That's how I understand. Center of computing has shifted from PC to smartphone, and from smartphone to even farther variety of devices that CPU is gonna be embedded. It's exactly the word, Internet of Things, IoT. That information is coming back together to the cloud and stored one after another. Every kind of things will be gathered and stored in the cloud. It is going to be asset or treasure box of the information is going to be the cloud.
The center of the computing for this cloud is actually shifted from Intel architecture to Arm architecture. Why Arm? Why the center of computer has been moved from Intel to Arm is because the source of energy, which is the power. The gas was the essential things for automobile to move the car, but now that's been shifted to electricity, and now that we are entering into electric vehicle era. Center of computers because its energy source is electricity and only it's electricity, that's the reason why that the CPU, center of the CPU architecture, has been shifted from Intel to Arm. In big picture, there were Intel and Arm. There were those two architectures in this era.
As the biggest source of energy, this computer, because it used the electricity, so that is why efficient use of electricity and the design for that is important, and that made Arm even stronger. At the time of personal computer, Arm was believed that the capabilities or the performance of computing is weak. Computing power was not good enough. That was people's recognition. That time has stayed a bit long, but actually, recently, that's proved that that was not true. Even in the cloud area, the major cloud is now using straight to Arm architecture. Even in PC world, already that sign has been seen starting from last year and so. Variety of things is going to be digitized, computerized, and then the stage for Arm is going to be even bigger.
Since the foundation of SoftBank, just a little bit before the foundation, back in, at the age of 19, I encountered the photo which led me to the path to the information revolution, and I was so impressed, and I was so moved. Now, I became an owner of Arm, who is the center of the computer. I didn't imagined when I was 19 at that moment at all. Since the pandemic started with COVID, we didn't know how it is going to be dangerous for the humankind. We could be very at risk, the falling down to the valley. That was something that I explained and presented at the earnings in a couple of quarters ago, and I explained that the unicorn is gonna be falling down to the valley. Actually, unicorn was the one that recovered because of online phenomena.
Actually, the valley of COVID was not that deep. Risk was not that large. That was something that I felt. Because we didn't know how deep it will be, and we were about to fall down to the valley, so that is why we decided to survive and dispose or monetize our asset. I wanted to grow the company and business, so that is why I've been raising money as much as possible, try to stretch myself so that we were able to create bigger transactions with large transactions of acquisitions. At the time of internet bubble, even we have to sell and monetize assets so that we can survive back then, and even at the Lehman crisis, we have survived by monetizing our assets. At that moment, we actually sold many things.
This was the third crisis for us, which was the COVID shock. We have also decided once again to monetize whatever we have. As a part of that, we were to let Arm go back then. Personally, that was the least assets that I wanted to sell, but to survive was even more important for us, so that I was crying, but decided to let Arm go. After we monetizing other assets, and we came to conclusion that we don't have to sell everything, so that's why that the one-third was sold in cash, one-third receiving NVIDIA share in exchange. Excuse me, two-third that we receive in NVIDIA's share in exchange. It was like a selling, but at the same time buying type of expression that I used back then. We become the major shareholder.
By combining Arm and NVIDIA, we thought that it's gonna be even more powerful in the era of AI and computing era. However, if Arm and NVIDIA combined together, it could be too powerful, which was said by the many people and being declined or denied by several authorities. That's why that we have to gave up this idea of combining those two company together. At the same time, from the beginning, this was the last asset that we wanted to sell if it were not a crisis. Not receiving approval for this acquisition, and the moment that we received that decline, we realized that the value of the COVID was not that deep, and vaccinations has been going on amongst the people, so that receiving such decline was something that we could swallow.
A few months later, although that we passed the COVID valley, we start seeing the Ukraine situation, Russian situation, and start seeing the severe inflation around the world. Then many of the central banks been providing financial support. Many people who hesitate to make any consumption, start consuming once that we see some settle down of COVID. In addition to that, we start seeing the price of the energy hiking because of Ukraine situation. With all those, equity market around the world was damaged. We saying that we wanted to become the Vision capitalist. We are going to make a lot of investments through Vision Fund. We are very motivated few years ago, and that was our policy, and that was our announcement.
Looking at the current situation, regardless of public securities or private securities, almost all the investments that we have made is not showing a good performance. Our Vision Funds suffered, but not only us, investors around the world is also seeing the same situation because of the damage of the equity market. Under such circumstance, I think through what is the direction that SoftBank should be taking. Vision Fund, should we continue investing one after another, or should we reduce our debt and reduce the debt ratio, having higher cash position so that we can make a safety drive of the business? There are several intense discussion internally. I myself also think through, and the conclusion was that we will not be able to see the settle of the inflation in the meantime.
Even public security is gonna be having a difficult time, and there are time lag for the private securities, which we believe that there's gonna be suffers in the meantime. We believe that we have to be in defensive mode, which we announced, and we made a decision bit earlier than the others, which was a good things for us. Continuously keeping this direction, so for new investments, we would like to be more selective, and the Vision Funds have restructured, and also has had a cost reduction, and we had executed a program. During that time, as an entrepreneur, as a business person, I do need to work on something. However, fortunate things for me and us was that Arm came back to us.
I could concentrate and devote myself in Arm, which I've been thinking for the past few months, and I've been focusing on Arm, and especially recently. It made me realize once again how great Arm is. And the strong base for the Arm's growth, and the source of the energy, and our growth opportunity is something tremendous. That's something that I reminded myself once again. Since the acquisition of Arm, even before then, I've been in love with Arm, and recently that the Armv9 start being used in next phase, in next phase. How can we best use of Arm, and what kind of interesting service, interesting technology can be made, and thinking about all that made me feel great technology innovation, great innovations, and I'm so convinced with all those.
That's why, in the coming few years, I only like to focus on this thing. The next explosive growth of Arm is something that I would like to concentrate on, and I devote myself into that. Other management, we're gonna be keeping defensive mode. To be defensive, Goto-san, Mr. Goto, is more suitable than me as a Chief Financial Officer, that who can keep the good defensive mode, and he should be the person that who you, who update you how we keeping our defensive mode. For me, personal, I'm the aggressive person. I'm not a defensive person, so I like to be concentrate and focus on the Arm.
Now that I'm being in very deep in technology and also deep in business models and business strategy for Arm from the morning to the night, and that's something that the source of my energy, source of my happiness, source of my excitement. I believe that's also be the base for the best contribution for the SoftBank's growth. That's why I would like to focus on Arm and some technology around Arm. I will be the best for stakeholder of SoftBank, best for humankind, best for the company. That's how deeply convinced I am. That's why I decided to provide the happiness for everyone with information revolution, which is coming back to my original philosophy. Purely, I would like to pursue myself for this happiness.
As a result, any earnings results announcement or day-to-day operation, I can ask Mr. Goto and also other senior management, and keep the company running. At the earnings results announcement, this will be my last message for you in the meantime. Mr. Goto is gonna explain you the content of our performance, and he'll be, and also other members is going to address any questions that you may have. Feel free to ask any questions. That's all from me. Thank you very much.
That was Mr. Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group. Please give us a few moments before we start the presentation. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you very much for waiting. Now I'd like to invite Mr. Goto, Board Director and CFO, to present you the earnings results and business overview. Thank you very much for your kind introduction.
My name is Goto. I think, Mr. Son's presentation covers everything. Our job is to make sure that we communicate the facts for the last three months to a year. As Mr. Son mentioned earlier, and by the way, Mr. Son calls himself as a businessperson and entrepreneur. He is the founder of SoftBank, and also from our perspective, he's an entrepreneur. I don't see any other person who has such an entrepreneurship, not only in Japan, but also in the world. I have been working with Mr. Son for the last 23 years, and he is entrepreneur.
Under the circumstance, we will make sure that we fulfill our missions. In the meantime, I think, Mr. Son's executing his entrepreneurship will serve you the best. Your continued support for us, Mr. Son, and the senior management will be highly appreciated. Now, the financial result for the last three months. Not only talking about the things in the last three months, but also taking this opportunity, I'd like to talk more about what's going on in SoftBank from financial perspective. Again, we are in a defensive mode. I've been in SoftBank for the last 23 years, and we have gone through those ups and downs. By focusing on defense, looking back my history in SoftBank, current financial position is the most stable and best level in my SoftBank history. I'm confident.
Even though NAV has been going down, it's JPY 16.7 trillion, and loan to value is 15%, which is too low under normal operation. Cash position, JPY 4.3 trillion, which means four years' worth of bond redemption. Again, we have a very stable, safe balance sheet. Why are we doing this? Well, I'd like to touch upon market environment. Investment companies like us, like Sequoia, Tiger Global, are looking at the market environment just like us. Inflation in the United States, CPI announcement yesterday made us relieved, but I believe that they keep raising rates to contain inflation. Consequently, markets have been and will be corrected for some time, especially in tech sector. There should be continuous uncertainties in the market. When talking about geopolitical risks, cost for peace could be expensive.
That's how we realize under the current condition. Infrastructure costs went up, and food costs went up, and prices have increased dramatically in general. Under the circumstance, we kept focusing on defense. How should we continue on this mode, you may ask. Of course, the tide will be shifted sometime, and we have to anticipate when that will come. We will make sure we take time before we shift our position. Now let me talk about the consolidated results. For the first half of FY 2022, we posted JPY 3.2 trillion of net sales, JPY 849.6 billion of loss on investment, JPY 292.6 billion of income before income tax, and JPY 129.1 billion of net loss.
Looking at loss on investment, as you can see on the slide, in the first half of this year, Vision Fund posted a loss of JPY 4.3 trillion. For Alibaba shares, as we announced in August, through early retirement of Alibaba transactions and by reduced holding of Alibaba, we saw a huge gain. I'll come back to the point later in detail. You can see the similar result in terms of income before income tax by the segment. Alibaba trades are done at holding company level. SVF Vision Fund business recorded JPY 3.4 trillion loss, while investment business of holding companies, including Alibaba, posted JPY 3.3 trillion income. Consolidated result was JPY 292.6 billion positive. For net income quarterly, for the first quarter, from April through June, we saw JPY 3.2 trillion of net loss.
However, in the second quarter, we saw JPY 3 trillion of net income. The main source of the huge gain is Alibaba. We signed the prepaid forward contracts using Alibaba shares for our financing activities. For example, one year ahead, principally, we should settle in cash, but there's an option to roll over. We have options allowing us to make a decision how to settle the transaction. Looking at uncertainties in China, assets in China should be looked at, and we have to monetize assets in China that can be safely monetized. By settling earlier, we should show the market that we don't have to worry about our financing in the future. By reducing our holding of Alibaba became equity method associate from accounting perspective.
As you can see on the slide, we posted a gain on settlement of prepaid forward contract which was JPY 0.6 trillion, and zero point eight trillion yen of derivative gain, thanks to hedging effect of the contracts. Those, again, came from closing the contracts early. That resulted in JPY 4 trillion of gain from remeasurement of remaining holding of Alibaba shares from book value to fair value. Total impact on consolidated P&L was JPY 4.3 trillion. By utilizing group assets, we want to strike the right balance. Now talking about the foreign exchange. What kind of impact foreign exchange changes have on our company in terms of net asset value, which is very important because our corporate value comes from net asset value. From that perspective, our assets are foreign currency.
Excuse me, most of our assets are foreign currency denominated, and also most of our deposits are foreign currency denominated. That means weaker yen has positive impact on NAV. For this term, it was JPY 2.9 trillion. Again, foreign exchanges change, and what we want to do is to focus on improving values without being influenced by changes of foreign exchanges. Even though we posted loss of JPY 1.1 trillion, we saw increase of equity by JPY 2.6 trillion. We had debt, including asset-backed finance. We could offset, but according to the accounting rule, we should separate such debt. Even though, again, we posted a loss of JPY 1 trillion, we saw increase in equity from accounting perspective.
Now, the trend of net asset value, which has been going down in the last 12 months, and that's natural from the market environment. Still, we have JPY 16.7 trillion of net asset value as of today. If you compare that of March end to September end, it was JPY 23 trillion as of March end and down to JPY 19 trillion as of September 30. That decrease also. As a result, NAVs, those were smaller than that of equity value of holdings. Net value per share and share price as of March end, it was about JPY 11,000 per share. Share price back then was JPY 5,559. The discount percent was 50%. As of September 30, net asset value per share was JPY 10,800, and share price was JPY 4,900.
Discount was 55%, which was huge. Market often called it SoftBank discount. Why discount? We have been talking about it with investors all the time. In the last few weeks, our share price has bounced back. As of November ninth. Well, today, about JPY 6,950 or something, but as of November 9, over JPY 7,000. In any case, compared to September thirty, our share price bounced back, so I believe that the discount at the moment is around 40%. We want to keep working on decreasing 40% discount level by analyzing from different aspects. We keep working on that. Now talking about equity value of holdings. This slide shows equity value of holdings by assets. On the right-hand side of the chart, you see percentage. Alibaba accounts for 15%. It was bigger, like at 30, 40% in the past. SoftBank KK accounts for 11%.
SVF 1, 2, Latam, all in all, around 43%. Historically speaking, Alibaba, Arm has been smaller and smaller. Why? First, thanks to monetization, and second, decrease of share price. If you look at the pie chart, you can see the change clearly. Balance of portfolio is important from rating perspective and investment perspective, especially looking at the percentage of listed shares, which is very important for rating. Percentage of listed companies decreased from 52% to 45%, 44%, while the whole asset value went down, which is pretty good. We are working on preparing Arm IPO. Once Arm's value is unleashed, I believe that proportion of listed shares would go up. Now that I would like to go into a little bit more detail in how we're going to be defensive.
Now, we are very much slowing down the new investment activities, effectively almost stopped. From that sense, we would like to make a collection of the investments, which means that we are receiving cash. Cash in situation is continued. If we do nothing, we just improve our balance sheet. As a result, two stakeholders that we have, which is equity holders and the bondholders or credit investors, more specifically banks or the bondholders, those credit investors. Those are the two major stakeholders. They have a different interest, different objectives. If we do nothing, we will improve our balance sheet so that we can see the better quality in loan and better in bonds.
At the same time, we do need to make a return to shareholders, for example, buybacks, continuous dividend payouts, those that we've been executing in continuous basis. First, I would like to show you some credit index loan to value. The loan to value is actually very steady, and as I mentioned in the beginning of this presentation, 15% or so. If we are in the investment mode, then that we are not working properly. It's not levered enough. SoftBank Group's most important job for finance team is to pursue the most appropriate level of leverage. That's the kind of important agenda for me as well as for team. Pursuing the best and appropriate leverage, then that we'll be able to have a higher possibility of making the best return to shareholders.
Also, that will be the best for the retirement or the service of the debt. Of course if the credit index is too high, then that means that the less profitability, even if you buy the unlevered company's bonds, that's not making much money. Appropriate level of the leverage is also important for the credit investors as well. We're trying to find the sweet spot for that. It has been and is going to be the important mission for the finance team. Here is the monetization and capital allocation. JPY 2.7 trillion cash position was there with us as of the end of March 2022.
Since then, we've been having several transactions, including the Alibaba contract, which gave us JPY 3.4 trillion in monetizations. We've been using those monies for the buybacks or the debt service. Still, that gives us undrawn commitment line from the banks, including that we have about JPY 4 trillion, the cash position. This JPY 4.3 trillion actually is a level that allows us to cover a coming four years, debt service. Bonds, we have to make sure that we have a secure the repayments of those. For the other products and instrument, anything like products, instruments with banks or the others that can be negotiable in terms of terms and everything with banks. Bond is not something like that.
The servicing of the debt or the repayment of the bond is something we have to make sure to secure the source for that because we are quite a prominent and big user of the bond. That's why we believe that we have to make sure that we have a good position of the cash to cover the bond redemption. When it comes to the net debt, that's the debt less cash. I believe that the net debt is the most logical to speak of the company. However, the frequently asked question is, are you repaying your loans or the debt? Here, I wanted to show you our gross debt in the past six months that we've been doing the actual repayments quite largely. As you can see, about JPY 2.4 trillion of debt has been repaid.
The bonds, not only to cover the redemption of the bonds, but also, or like a buyback of shares, we've been doing the buyback of bonds as well. We have about JPY 300 billion level of the buyback of bonds. The early retirements has been also done for the bonds. Asset-backed financing. We don't have much needs for the financing, so this has been also repaid one after another. In the loan by banks, because we don't have much purpose of use, so that commitment credit lines, those that we've been used, that we repay, and we just keep the undrawn portion. For the loan re-refinancing, because we have a good cash position. Based on the discussion with counterparties that we try to make early repayments. Those has been also improved dramatically.
Now they're going to the equity holders or shareholders return. Last year, this time that we have announced JPY 1 trillion buyback of our shares, which has finished at November eighth. Last year that I said I may not be able to finish all that amount, and we have started it, and actually we were able to accomplish all the amount that we've been planned and announced. After that, in addition to this JPY 1 trillion, we have also announced JPY 400 billion level of the buyback. We've been executing this program and the buyback.
Because we have a quite a long time of the insider period, and once that we announce the earnings that we have a bit open for the insider information, so that there that we use and discussed with Trust Bank, give them the order. Once we set the order with Trust Bank, we cannot change the terms, we cannot change the order. There are transaction volume increase and decrease, then that the buyback amount is gonna change as well. In the past few weeks, actually, our transaction volume of our share was very volatile, actually increased to 3-4 times or 5 times. Then purchase actually accelerated 3 times, 4 times and 5 times. As a result, somehow it's the same day as the announcements. Yesterday, as of yesterday, we have finished all the JPY 400 billion buyback.
Speed-wise, it was too quick, it may have made some speculations, and I was a bit worried, but actually it was just a matter of technicality. Share buyback. Actually, when you see the past trend, in the past 5 years, we made about cumulative amount-wise JPY 5 trillion of the buyback, I believe. I believe we are the biggest buyback company amongst Japanese companies. When you compare with other global companies, this is the past three years, since 2019, and those public companies around the world, and we are in top 10 for buyback. Toyota is number 45. This is the kind of position that we take for the buyback and want you to see those comparable data. Now, turning to some group activities.
First is Vision Fund. In this quarter, environment is still tough. In here, JPY 9,959 million. Compared to previous quarter or a year-on-year basis, we are making slight improvements. This is a long investment, so we don't want to be moving around the policies in short-term period, but rather like to see the longer period. This is a cumulative gain and loss in the past one year or so. Unfortunately, that it comes to kind of offsetting all the gains that we received. Quarterly basis, now that you see that this there is some signs of hitting the bottom, so as a long-term operation that we would like to make sure that we can have a firm performance for the investors. Vision Fund, we have Vision Fund 1 and Vision Fund 2.
Let me share some data for Vision Fund 1 first. This one has third-party investors as well. $89 billion is the investment cost, and the cumulative investment return is $102.9 billion. That here shows a certain gains here. There are still some public companies currently held. We would like to make sure that we have we can make a good results and performance share with the investors. The blue portion, you can see some declines there because some valuation downs in public market. Compared to the end of September, now that we are in the beginning of November, this blue portion is actually increasing by $2 billion or so, I assume. In Vision Fund 2, here, just about two years since we launched.
Last year to previous year, those invested portfolios they are still in a growth process, so that many companies are showing the markdown. But at the same time, I believe that many of our portfolio company has a very firm fundamentals, so that they have we would like to make sure that we have a good management on those portfolio companies. We have 472 companies invested, and some of them increasing value, some of them decreasing in value. This shows that those are the decreasing the shares are about two-thirds, and about one quarter of them are increasing in value, and the remaining is no change.
Compared to the end of March, those with reducing the value, which used to be one-third in end of March, but that is increasing about two-thirds. That tells you how severe and difficult the environment is right now. At the same time, that we do see some companies that increasing in value, so that we would like to make sure that we can survive this moment together with those portfolio companies. Here, again, in loss on investments, breaking down what are the drivers for those that are increasing in value, and what are the drivers for those that are decreasing in value. Numbers, though the bars are too small, so that'd be difficult to tell, but those two on your left is a relatively large driver.
Recent transaction and the performance of portfolio companies, those are the main drivers for those that marking up. On your right-hand side are those that are marking down, mainly coming from public portfolio companies and also public comparable companies. That's another reason for the markdown. Next to that is the performance of those portfolio companies. We analyze those in detail so that we can manage how we can improve the management. Invested amount-wise, I mean, it tells us that we've been focused on defense, so all new investment activities for the second quarter, only $0.3 billion, almost we have nothing that we have invested this quarter. Last year, first quarter was $15.6 billion. Second quarter was $14.1 billion.
Last year, in the first half, only about $30 billion has been invested. Almost JPY 4 trillion level of the investment was being made last year. This year, about $2.5 billion at the first half, so it's about JPY 300 billion or so. Our strategy is clearly shown in these numbers. Under such circumstance, IPO was very few in the first half. There are three IPOs, and three of them actually are making good return. At the time of IPO, there are some increase in share price, but later on, many of them are declining in value, share price because of due to the environments. At the same time, there are many companies that are aiming for the IPO in the future.
Once the market recovers, and along with the situation, we believe that we'll be able to see better numbers in here. In the meantime, there are three core policies for the funds. Because we have invested JPY 5 trillion last year, and now that we are not even making much of the investments, there are dynamic changes from last year to this year so that human resource size has to be slimmed down along with our activities situation so that we can make organizational efficiency. Also, we would like to be selective in terms of investments. Otherwise we are not investing unless we find any special opportunities or any great opportunities. Also at the same time that we would like to make an effort on enhancing the value of current portfolio.
Here, there are some changes in the leadership team for the fund. You may see on newspapers and so, Rajeev Misra has been leading on a fund, but he is now that they're making a new path for himself. Vision Fund 1 is continuously chaired or the CEO is by Mr. Rajeev Misra. In Fund 2, he is continuously serve as vice chairman. But he is not going to be involved in any new investment activities for Vision Fund 2 because of the conflict of interest point of view. As a new leadership, as you can see, in United States and Latin America, Alex Clavel, Asia, Europe is the Greg Moon, and for the functional teams, Navneet there, that he's sitting here with us.
Those three members are actually leading the team of the Vision Fund. Now, SoftBank Vision Fund sectors in focus. Of course, in general, markets are bad and situations are bad, but are really everything bad? We have not given up. We are looking at potential of future of invested companies. Again, let us remind you sectors in focus. The first, digital commerce. We have invested in many companies in this sector. As you can see, the worldwide retail e-commerce sales, the percentage increased from 7% to 24%, and it's going to be continued on this trend. Consumers want to have seamless digital-first experiences, and they want to directly access online on their own. Again, the market will be more convenient and connected, and it will be powered by AI. Next sector, global supply chain.
Let's say automated warehouse, which is one of our focuses. For example, AutoStore is one of the companies doing business in that sector. On the left-hand side, you can see automation market opportunity. Only 2% of the market is automated. 98% unautomated, which has a great opportunity. Not only AI, but robotics should play a key role in the sector and the market, which is very attractive to us. Next, Fintech or financial services. Financial services will continue to grow with digital payment, new banking, and this investment in assets, for example, that growth is clear by looking at the PayPay. Labor market. Historically, hiring demand is so high. By leveraging AI, hiring processes, onboarding process can be transformed dramatically. Employee engagement and employee retention should be helped by AI and big data. Talent management is something that AI should help.
Consequently, business can grow. Last but not the least, data. How can we deliver data to those businesses? As you can see, data volume has been growing exponentially, and AI's computing power, which is powered by Arm.
Is growing. Capability to analyze a huge volume of data and protect and manage data are going to be very important in the society in the future, and that can present a business opportunity. Those are the sectors in focus from Vision Fund perspective. Now let us pick up some portfolio companies from SBG's perspective. SBKK, Yahoo!, Z Holdings , those are public companies, so they have their own financial results announcements, so I exclude them. First, let me talk about Arm. Revenue-wise, it looks like 6% down year-over-year, but known royalty revenues changed dramatically quarter by quarter. In the first quarter of last year, that number included revenue from two big transactions that happened before. Excluding such one-time effect, the revenue of Arm for the first half of the year would have seen increase.
As you can see, three-year CAGR was 21%, and that's how Mr. Son is confident with Arm from a numbers perspective. Looking at adjusted EBITDA, three-year compound annual growth rate was 107%. We have been talking with Arm to build strategy in the future, preparing for IPO in the future. That kind of group-wide effort bears fruit. Market share, which I'm sure is familiar to you. Arm's chip business is what Arm is most good at. Arm's chip is heavily used in mobile and IoT, and semiconductor will be used in every market, so that means Arm has huge growth potential going forward. In the second quarter, Arm announced Neoverse V2 and Armv 9 technology-based Neoverse V2 processor. It was really positive news. Arm's products are supported by major companies like NVIDIA and Intel.
Those big companies have made announcements to adopt Arm's design, which is a very positive trend. Arm welcomed three board members and also welcomed a new CFO, Jason Child, who has great experience and expertise. Other new board members have a great expertise and experience in their respective sectors, and they should provide Arm's management great advice. Looking at Japan, let me talk about PayPay. Number of registered users, 51 million. PayPay has reaffirmed its strong position. GMV, JPY 1.8 trillion, continuous growth. They have been focusing on expanding GMV, and the next challenge for them is to increase profitability. Different data shows high visibility and presence. For example, they have a number one position in QR code payment market in Japan, number one position in most downloaded app.
Going forward, growth opportunity for PayPay can be seen in TAM or total addressable market, which is about JPY 250 trillion. TAM, JPY 250 trillion, and PayPay's GMV is only JPY 4.9 trillion of JPY 250 trillion of TAM. PayPay's JPY 4.9 trillion and other payment companies have fewer GMV. So this TAM is a blue ocean.
From technology perspective and from business model perspective, we are in a strong position to get the share of this, of huge market. One, just something new, something old, T-Mobile. Acquisition of Sprint was done in 2013. At the time of acquisition of Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, those are the three big bells. We, Sprint and T-Mobile, as you can see on your left-hand side, that was their level. Now, actually, it changed the landscape, and now T-Mobile is leading the situation. AT&T is already in number four position. Acquisition of Sprint, I had a difficult time for financing, but I didn't imagined or expected that AT&T come to this position. I believe that this is a very competitive market. T-Mobile strategy is, I believe, very appropriate at the time.
At the time of acquisition, JPY 2.1 trillion in investment was made, but the equity portion was JPY 0.4 trillion. Remaining were leveraged. Leverage has already been paid, and the equity value is now increased to JPY 3 trillion. Also for IRR by 25%, because the time has passed since then, it's not bad, not bad at all. One time that the people said that the Sprint acquisition was failure, you made a mistake. Actually we did experience and suffered at the time with Sprint. However, as a result, it led to the great return to us. With many people's wisdom and power, we believe that we come to this way. Last but not least, financial strategy.
We always announce our financial strategy in the beginning of the period, and there's no change for that. We always like to keep our words once we commit to the market. On top of that, we ask Masa to freely manage the business. At the same time, environment change, market change, so we try to do whatever we can do based on our financial strategy. We have no change on our strategy, just to reconfirm with you that these are the three financial policy, loan to value, maintaining that below 25% in normal times, and also maintain at least two years' worth of bond redemption in cash, and secure recurring distributions and dividend income from Vision Fund 1 and 2 and other subsidiaries.
We would like to make sure these policies, and of course that, under such market and circumstance, we would like to keep the defensive mode. At the same time, we believe that there are, we will be able to see the dawn of the recovery, sometime later, so that we are looking forward to the time to come, and we would like to make sure that we keep the day-to-day. That's all from me. Now that we would like to open the floor to the questions. Masa actually answers all the questions by himself, but I am not that capable, so that we have Ms. Kimiwada. She has a longer history in SoftBank than me. We have Navneet.
He's been with us at the Vision Fund supporting Rajeev from the inception of the fund. Ian, he's been working with us since acquisition of Arm. After privatized Arm, that he's been actually supporting the company from the investor relations point of view. We have a great member actually ready for you. If you have any questions, please let us know.
Now we'd like to take questions. First, we'd like to take questions from the floor. Please wait for a microphone and start with your name and affiliation. For those who are on Zoom, please press Raise Hand button and wait for your name to be called. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please make sure to press Lower Hand button. We'd like to take up to two questions per person so that we can take questions from as many as possible. We are starting from the floor now. If you have any questions, please raise your hand.
Thank you for taking my questions. Masayo from Nikkei Business. Two questions. First, you mentioned long winter or market environment. What's your outlook for market environment in the next 12 months or next year? For mid and long term, when do you expect market will be recovered? Do you think this year is the bottom or next year we will see another bottom? First, what's your view on market environment in-
The new year. The second impact on your finance from Alibaba shares, you posted a remeasurement gain. Going forward, what kind of impact Alibaba share or contract or settlement will have on P&L? When you sell Alibaba shares, of course, it has an impact on cash, but what kind of impact when you sell Alibaba shares on P&L? If you keep holding on Alibaba shares, what kind of impact should we expect on P&L, and how could you clarify?
Thank you very much for your questions. Maybe I will ask Kimiwada-san to answer the second question. The first, our outlook for the market, and if we have a crystal ball, that'd be great. To be honest with you, we don't know when we hit the bottom. In the last one month or so, we are beginning to see the positive change. For example, IPO market, it looks like getting improved. Companies like Mobileye tried IPO recently. Basically, we are pessimistic about the market environment. Why? Because like I mentioned in the presentation, geopolitical risks are still there. Until we see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can't expect a positive outlook in the market. We don't have to be rushed, and we want to wait for good timing.
About your second question, Alibaba shares. If you look at page 12. JPY -1.1 trillion at the bottom, it says. It's FVTPL valuation loss. The measurement took place in the middle of second quarter, and at the end of second quarter, we valued the fair value. Because it's FVTPL investment every quarter, we mark fair value every quarter. When the market gets better, we see positive. When markets get bad, we see negative. If we were to sell Alibaba shares, the difference between the share price we sold and the price at the end of the latest quarter, that's how you see.
Thank you.
Any other questions? Person in the center with gray jacket.
Yamauchi from Mainichi News. FTX, I believe that the Vision Fund is investing in FTX. What is the impact for your results? Also, for the second question, any possibility of management buyout? There are some rumors by analysts. Is there any possibility for that?
About FTX, I've been seeing such news for the past couple of days, and we have invested in FTX-related two companies about $100 million or so from Vision Fund. That's compared to the total amount of investment, very minor. In any case of markdown, but still that is very not material for us. About your second, in addition to that, cryptocurrencies is something that we are very small in terms of investing in such cryptocurrency related.
For your reference, I was biggest against person for this cryptocurrency investments in the company. Investing in AI is the vision for the Vision Fund, so the investing in currency is actually a bit different from our vision. That's something that we need to see seriously. But through the business of cryptocurrency, there may be something that comes to the technology revolution like blockchain. That can be a positive for AI, so that can be some interpretations to make an investment. Including some indirect of those, but still just about 1.3% of the Vision Fund overall. For cryptocurrency, that I am still not for the idea, and no change for that. That's for the first question. For your second question, MBO, I have no comment for that. No change for that answer.
Thank you.
Next question.
Nakako from NewsPicks. Two questions. First, you talked about resizing of SVF, like 150 people out of 500, for example. How are you restructuring SVF from human resource perspective? Related question, when market bounces back, you may want to be able to restart investment through Vision Fund. Investment company or venture capital, you have to continue investing to get information flow going and to keep network. SVF 2 and later, maybe you may want to invest in early-stage companies going forward. What's your view on future investment by SVF?
Navneet, could you talk about that?
To your first question about reduction in the staff for the Vision Funds. As has been reported in some of the media outlets, the reduction was more than 30%. In terms of early stage, at the right time, at the attractive valuations, we will continue to look at investing in companies that leverage artificial intelligence. That's the focus. We look at the most disruptive technology companies that leverage artificial intelligence. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you. Any other questions? Third row from me, gentleman.
Matsuda from The Nikkei Newspaper. Arm IPO. My question is about Arm IPO. Semiconductors market is in difficulties, and world shortage is also going forward. In the financial report also that indicates that there may be some slowdown of growth of Arm depending on the market. Before that you mentioned that fiscal 2022 is a kind of target for the IPO timing. Do you have any change of the schedule, and also why?
Arm is in preparation for IPO, so I would like to ask Ian to answer that to make sure.
Thank you for your question. Clearly we want to IPO as soon as is possible. As Masa and Goto-san indicated earlier, given the current global economic uncertainty, given the state of the financial markets, that's probably now unlikely to happen in this fiscal year, so unlikely to happen before the end of March 2023. However, the preparations for the IPO are going very well. They're advanced. You know, we are fully committed to IPOing sometime in 2023, in calendar 2023.
As explained by Ian, SoftBank Group has no change in our explanation about that too. Once that the market is ready, of course sooner is better, but this is a great company, great asset, so that we would like to make sure that we have a great preparation in the market. That is why we don't have to rush, we don't have to stretch, so that we think that sometime in year of 2023.
Thank you. Any other question from the floor?
Li from Bloomberg. First, you mentioned that practically you hold investment for now, but what's your position to the Chinese market? About the headcount reduction, about 30%, is that the end of the entire restructuring or is there more to come in the future? Thank you.
Thank you. The first question, maybe Navneet may add to my answer, but again, yes, investment-wise in general, we put on hold. The assets in China, we are more careful than before. I refrain from commenting on politics in China, for example, but assets that we have in China have been damaged. That's the fact. For some time, our Chinese assets may suffer from uncertainties. That's why whenever an opportunity for monetization we will do. When it comes to new investment, again, we continue to be more careful than before. The second question, Navneet, you may want to answer to the second question.
With respect to the reductions, as has been reported, it has been greater than 30%. We believe we have now right-sized the organization to support our more than 470 portfolio companies. Given the defensive posture that we have, and at the right time when we see attractive investment opportunities at the correct valuations, we will be able to pursue them with the team we have in place.
Thank you very much. For the interest of time, I just like to have a last question from the floor. Very much front row, gentleman please.
Nagoshi from NHK, thank you very much. I have two questions please. In the presentation, efficiency of the organization has also been discussed. In the previous earnings that no sacred cows, but cost reduction is gonna be pursued. Is that going to be the same policy? Any specific policies or ideas for the reductions? And as for Masa, I have second question about Masa. In his explanation that he's gonna delegate some of authority to somebody else, but is he going to be involved or is he not going to be involved in the management as a CEO? Is he not going to touch on any management of the business at all?
Let me come to your second question regarding Masa. For the first question about the efficiency of the organization, Navneet, would you please answer that? For the second one, Masa, as a chairman CEO, there's no change on that he's gonna be involved. We also need to do more better because we've been asking Masa too much probably to do many things. We, in our respective expertise that we need to actually have the role. He's gonna be supervising as a group CEO or CEO, and he'll supervise overall, but also as an entrepreneur that he develop and grow the business. He's been doing two roles.
Especially for the functional portion, me, myself and Kimiwada-san's team is going to look after. Each group company, they have their own management team. For those public companies, they already have their own independent governance. For those private, like a Vision Fund for example, those is something even not public company, but try to be close work as an independent body and try to enhance the governance. Navneet, please go for the first question.
With respect to the efficiency of the organization and the reductions, when we made the reductions, those were across all levels, senior levels, junior levels, middle management levels, and they were across all geographies. The other thing we did was SoftBank's operations outside of Japan, we brought them under a single platform, one SoftBank. We had SoftBank International, and we have the Vision Funds. We have now combined them, and they are operated in, as one SoftBank team. For all the functional areas like finance, legal, human resources and others, there are single teams outside of Japan supporting each of the investing, teams, like the investing teams for Vision Fund 1, Vision Fund 2, the Latam funds. There is significant efficiency as a result of these organizational changes that we made.
Thank you very much. Now, we'd like to take questions from Zoom participants. Please refrain from connecting to other live streams to avoid any echoing. Nakajima-san from Kyodo Tsushin, please unmute and speak.
My name is Nakajima from Kyodo Tsushin. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a question about Son-san's remarks. He mentioned that this time it was the last, which surprised me. I thought that he would show himself next time and onward, but it seems today was the last. Going forward, maybe shareholders' meeting is the only forum where we can see Masa's face. Maybe Masa's remarks won't be picked by media, for example, not so much compared to from before. That could have a negative impact to you. Even though there are some disadvantage of Masa not showing up as frequently as before, still he decided or you decided to have him focus on Arm.
Thank you very much for your question. Of course, we took into consideration of some disadvantage. If you listen to what Masayoshi said carefully, yes, he will lead AGM, and also. He mentioned that he might show himself when he thought he would have to do. For like earnings results announcement, our job is to communicate with you the fact, which we will continue to do. I think eventually by releasing him from the efforts on earnings results announcement, for example, he should be able to have more time and efforts into his real focus. At some point, I'm sure he'll be happy to show his face to you, and we are looking forward to that opportunity. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question from the Zoom participants. Masuno-san from Nomura Securities. Thank you for waiting. Please unmute and start your question.
Yes, this is Masuno. I have two questions. First is about Alibaba. At the end of September, Alibaba forward contract. So looking at the financial report, end of September, less than one year or over one year, you have JPY 2.8 trillion of Alibaba forward. And, I don't know how that's going to be addressed, but I believe that depending, as long as we see some steadiness of the Alibaba share price, you may be able to settle in shares and repay. You don't need to repay in cash. How do you see that? That's my first question.
As you say, this transaction is basically trying to have a hedge. When share price goes down, we can settle with the agreed share price, so that when we see the decline in share price, we believe that we have more positive or benefit by settling in shares. By having the option, we'll be able to be flexible when the share price is volatile. That's the kind of the benefit that we try to keep it with us.
My second question is the standalone cash runway. Excluding the credit lines, JPY 3.6 trillion at the end of March. Buybacks and buy shares and buyback of bonds, you have spent JPY 800 billion. JPY 3.6 trillion less those that are, it's gonna give you JPY 2.8 trillion. Bonds that you keep cash equivalent to two-year bond redemptions, that gives you JPY 1.9 trillion. But if you try to keep more than that, then JPY 2.8 trillion is gonna be necessary to reserve for the bond redemptions or any otherwise that you cannot have any excess for the share buyback or the coverage for the debt. How long years that would you like to keep as a cash for the debt service? How do you see the balance in between the cash position and the financial policy?
Our financial policy is to maintaining our cash to cover at least a two-year bond redemption. That because historically, at the time of Lehman bankruptcy, how long did the market closed? Those are the kind of data, and I believe two years of the bond coverage is more than enough. That's the base for our financial policy. For the second half in the next fiscal year, there are several financing plans that we have. Being defensive and seeing such circumstance, if the financing plan is something acceptable for the counterparties in the market, then I believe that's gonna be executed. That is, I believe, gives us more than enough of the cash position.
In that case, you may increase the debt, but you have a cash position so that net does not really worry. If we divest the asset, then that's gonna be even positive.
If you settle in shares for the Alibaba contract, then I believe that that's also positive for you. Yes. That's my understanding as well. Thank you. That's all from me.
Thank you very much. In the interest of time, this was the last question. Thank you, Goto-san. This concludes the SoftBank Group Corp. earnings results briefing for the six-month period ended September 30, 2022. The video footage of the session will be uploaded on our corporate website. Thank you once again very much for joining the SoftBank Group Corp. earnings results briefing for six-month period ended September 30, 2022.