SoftBank Group recorded a massive profit in its fiscal Q3 ending 31 December due to a major year-on-year turnaround in its Vision Fund, which rallied in recent months as global stock markets surged.

Net profit rose to JPY1.17 trillion ($11.1 billion), up from JPY55 billion in the same period in 2019. Operating sales grew 10.7 per cent to JPY1.507 trillion.

The Vision Fund in the October to December period booked a profit of JPY844 billion due to gains in investments, including Uber and DoorDash, bouncing back from a JPY225 billion loss a year earlier. In the previous quarter the fund had a profit of JPY296.6 billion.

The company’s latest quarterly income growth is a surprising turnaround from posting its worst-ever net loss of JPY961.6 billion in fiscal 2019 (ending 31 March 2020), due to huge losses in its Vision Fund.

Revenue at its chip design unit Arm increased 10.1 per cent to $557 million.

In a statement, the company said strong royalty revenue was driven by an increase in shipments of Arm-based 5G smartphones and the deployment of its technology in 5G base stations and servers.

For the first three quarter of its fiscal 2020, the company said it completed its planned sale of assets, with the total reaching JPY5.6 trillion from April to September 2020. Share repurchases totalled JPY1.1 trillion as of end-December.