SoftBank Group Corp. (9984) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. So if you will excuse me, I will remove my mask and speak as I take PCR test immediate before this meeting. Once again, good morning, everyone. My name is Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. I would like to thank you for joining the meeting today with your busy schedule. Now with your permission, I will chair this meeting pursuant to the provision of Article 13 of the Article of Incorporation. I will call the 42nd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of SoftBank Group Corp to order. We have set up the dedicated website for our shareholders to exercise their voting rights or post questions. In light of current status of COVID-19, we have decided to hold this meeting at the same venue with the visiting shareholders. Well, thank you for your attendance. Board Director, [indiscernible] is attending through the web conference system. The agenda today is just set out on Page 3 of the convocation notice of this Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. I would like to inform you that the number of voting rights already constitutes the chrome. Now we will inform you how the meeting will proceed. We will start by laying out the matters for reporting outlining matters for approval, then we will discuss the business strategy and move on to the Q&A session on matters for reporting and matters for approval. Then we will take a vote only on the matters for approval. Regarding your exercise of voting rights, visiting shareholders who have not yet exercised on the dedicated website will be asked to confirm by hand clapping. Online shareholders can exercise their voting rights at the dedicated website. The dedicated website is open to accept your votes. Once you have exercised your voting rights, it is irreversible. After we explain the matters for approval and business strategy, we would like to accept questions and comments from the visiting shareholders. Questions and comments from visiting shareholders will be accepted at that time and then move on to questions and comments from online shareholders next. The dedicated website is already available for posting questions and comments from shareholders. May I remind you that accepting a post will end 5 minutes after the start of the Q&A session. If there are any procedural motions, we take a vote on them altogether. After we address questions and comments from the visiting shareholders. If there are any motions on amendments, it will be deliberated together with the proposal and a vote will be taken on the proposal first. We would like to limit to 1 question per shareholder and 1 motion by motion of the same type. Please post your question or motion within 200 characters or less. Thank you for your attention. Now I would like to take a vote on whether this approach is acceptable. For online shareholders, if you agree with the approach please click on the clapping button. While we confirm the result, I would like to take a vote from visiting shareholders. If you agree with this approach, please clap your hands. Thank you very much. Please wait for a moment. We are confirming the result. Thank you very much. With the majority of shareholders agreed, we shall follow this approach. We just confirmed the result of online shareholders as well. Thank you. Details of the matters for reporting are set out on Pages 23 to 71 and also available on our website. Now I would like to present you a summary video on our business overview. [Presentation]

Thank you very much for your attention. Now I'd like to present the matters for approval. Proposal 1 is appropriation of surplus. Details are set out on Page 7 of the convocation notice. Proposal 2 is partial amendment to the articles of incorporation. Details are set out on pages from 8 to 10 of the convocation notice. Proposal 3 is election of 9 Board of Directors. Details are set out on the pages from 11 to 19 of the convocation notice. Now I'd like to present our business strategy. This shows how SoftBank Group's stock performed since last year's AGM, if we took last year's AGM as 100, current level is 65%, which is decline. I'm not seeing an excuse, but looking around the world put into perspective NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index, which affect companies like Alibaba. Those are listed in the U.S., especially those listed on NASDAQ, China-related companies, the index is like this. And if you look at NASDAQ Composite index, that's how they have been performed of equity held by SoftBank Group, mainly -- those are in the U.S. and China. So as you can see, we are in the middle of red and blue line. I understand you know very well, why these stock prices performed this way. SoftBank Group that owns global stocks have been performing like this in terms of stock price. So the shareholders visiting at the venue and shareholders joining us online, I think they're interested most is whether or not SoftBank Group share price will go up or not. So this is the ultimate question that you may want to ask us from shareholders' interest perspective, so again, will the SoftBank Group share price go up or down. Well, it's hard to predict stock price, tomorrow, next year. I have been running business for over 40 years. And stock price today, next year, it's hard to predict even for me because there are a lot of factors that could have an impact on stock prices. But if you look at the long-term trend, maybe you see a different story. SoftBank Group share price since listing has been performing like this. Again, you can see ups and downs. But overall, in the long run, trend-wise, it's been increasing -- in relation to SoftBank Group's net asset value. So those are correlated. SoftBank Group's share price is correlated most to SoftBank Group's net asset value, or NAV. So NAV is indicated in light blue. So what is NAV? Some people may ask. So if I may remind you, NAV stands for net asset value. Again, net asset value or NAV is what I'm talking about. So then what is net asset value? Simply put, shareholders joining us today at the venue and online, you are SoftBank's shareholder. That's something in common. So as an investor, let's say you have SoftBank Group stock worth JPY 1 million, but your total investment value is JPY 10 million, including other stocks and our stocks. But you also have debt or borrowing JPY 2 million. Then net wise, your net asset is JPY 8 million. So 10 minus 8 is your net asset value. NAV, net asset value for you, Japanese, maybe it's difficult to understand what NAV is, quite simple. Just one word. The shareholdings minus debt is your net asset value. Again, if you have several stocks, which is your asset and those stock prices go up and down, that's same as a SoftBank Group's. SoftBank Group wants to be an investor in information revolution. So SoftBank Group is like you, investor -- as a business, we have SoftBank Corp and group. So that's an aspect of SoftBank Group's business organization. But SoftBank Group is also investor. So our job is to increase equity holding. But no matter how much you have equity holding, you have to deduct debt or borrowing to calculate our net asset value. SoftBank Group's share price should be in proportion to or correlated to net asset value. So if we want to project SoftBank Group share price, you need to look at whether SoftBank Group's NAV will go up or down because they are correlated. It's hard to understand SoftBank Group's balance sheet or P&L, some people may say they are too complicating. Even experts say our P&L and financial information is too complicating, balance sheet is complicating, P&L is complicating. And if you say they're uncomplicated. Look at NAV. I think that's how I look at our value, our company. Again, NAV is very important. And what does NAV or what is NAV created most to? It's most correlated to the Internet traffic. Why? As a business leader, I would say that we have been in line with companies that are most advanced in the efforts of information revolution. We are not investing in land or buildings or other stuff. Information Revolution -- and specifically, businesses and the company's most advanced and information revolution are the companies that we invest in. Who are most advanced in information revolution, the Internet. Among them, AI is the most advanced in terms of information revolution. SoftBank has been working along with or waving along with most advanced businesses and companies and Internet -- excuse me, information revolution. As Internet traffic goes up or as information revolution evolves, automatically, SoftBank Group's NAV should increase. So that's my sole focus. I have no doubt at all. I have no doubt at all. No matter what changes take place, I have never been doubtful since I started the business. Information Revolution should come. Since Internet has started, I have been believing that Internet traffic, internet users, Internet usage will definitely go up. Newton says that everything should be gravitated to gravity. Likewise, Internet should increase -- the number of users go up, the traffic goes up and information revolution should expand. So like somebody or people believe in Newton, I believe in information revolution. And we have been focusing on only information revolution and who are most advanced. Sometimes, we fail, and there are a lot of things that I should have learned. And -- but my belief stay the same. And how will the Internet traffic go? They keep growing. It's not going to go down or up. So they keep going up. Internet traffic should definitely go up. That's why I have no doubt Internet traffic may go down next year or may go down in 10 years. I might have doubt, but I don't have that doubt at all because I believe Internet traffic keeps going up and up, whether net bubble burst or the financial crisis took place, I have no doubt the Internet revolution keeps evolving and AI keeps evolving. What do I invest in? I invest in evolution. I believe in evolution, I believe in the vision of evolution. That's where I invest. As an investor, as a capitalist, we provide risk capital like a venture capital. So we invest in evolution. There are varieties of types of investors. Some investors trade against evolution. Some investors are contrarian. I think they will get hurt a lot. You can't trade against evolution because vehicles should win over horses, vehicles or cars beat horses. But if you say that, well, maybe horses will come back or they don't understand. If you say that the age will go back to the era of horses or paper. No. If you invest against evolution, that's very dangerous and risky. As an investor, I just simply invest in revolution. So again, we invest in evolution. AI is most advanced in evolution. The most advanced in AI -- in evolution is AI. And as a capitalist, providing risk capital. We invest in Vision Fund and Arm. I'm going to talk more about Arm later, but let me start from SoftBank Vision Fund. As you saw in the video earlier, companies using AI, autonomous driving, medical and logistics. There are a lot of businesses that utilize AI. So unicorns, as you know, are private with JPY 100 billion worth value, and they are rapidly growing. So they are not just small and medium-sized enterprises. Just traditional simple SMEs may stay SMEs. Difference between unicorns and SMEs are even though the size may be the same, but unicorns have vision for evolution and ambition for evolution, and they have a big dream. They want to fly over the big sky, that kind of ambitious vision is something that traditional SMEs don't have -- those small traditional medium-sized enterprises are horses and unicorns have horn and wings. Well, I know unicorns are not actual animals, real animals. But again, unicorns have a vision, big dream and technologies, those are unicorns. So when it comes to information revolutions, we try to identify unicorns across the globe to be most advanced information revolution. And we are majority -- major shareholders of many of the biggest unicorns. And SoftBank Vision Fund is the biggest investor in terms of investment in unicorns globally. 20 years ago, 30 years ago, there were a lot of #1s in Japan or some people would say, Japan as #1. There were a lot of Japanese companies that were #1 in the world. But now SoftBank Group is the world's biggest investor in AI unicorns or unicorns focusing on AI. So we focus on the most advanced sectors of Information Revolutions and AI, you are shareholders, you are investors. I am an investor, so we are the same animals. Well, I don't know as a hobby or as a business or your core business? -- you may invest in some companies, and I invest in 470 something companies. I think that I am more committed and more serious about those investments compared to small investors. So anyway, the SoftBank Vision Fund invest in 475 companies that are most advanced in AI globally. That's Vision Fund. And next is Arm. When you look at the future development of SoftBank Group, I believe this is it. This is, of course, [indiscernible] is here. But the SoftBank Corp. is the original start or my heart core of the business. So that relationship does not really change between SoftBank Group Corp and SoftBank Corp. And we have new and young CEO, meet Mr. Junichi Miyakawa, with him -- his support and strength that I believe that they're going to make a good development. But actually, this is a new engine for sure that our important engine is going to be Vision Fund and Arm. So I just mentioned about Vision Fund. So let me explain you about Arm. Last year -- at the AGM last year that I didn't really touch on much of the Arm because at that moment, we were talking about -- or having a discussion with NVIDIA at that time that we were in the pandemic situation, and there was difficult markets. So that was a bit tough time. But fortunately, main countries like U.S. and European countries, they -- against the idea of NVIDIA acquiring Arm. Each government or respective government was against the idea because NVIDIA, if they acquire Arm, they're going to be too strong. They're going to be the strongest. That's why that we couldn't receive the regulatory approval. Right now, I think -- without any excuse, I think it was a good result. It was a good thing for us that we couldn't receive the regulatory approval, honestly speaking, because Arm is the core and also completely aligned with the increase of Internet traffic. You see this blue bar, these are the number of Arm-based chips shipped. So these numbers does not go ups and downs. Actually, this goes along with Internet traffic. I believe this is one of the company who is very much aligned with the trend of Internet traffic. And you see a smartphone, I believe that most of you has smartphone and smartphone around the world actually are mounted with Arm chips or Arm engine. So Arm is actually providing such CPU. When it comes to not PCs and mobile devices, Arm is already taking 95% of market share. This smartphone revolution, of course, there are many applications around, but for example, displays, memories, there are many things. But actually, the core or the engine itself is using Arm. So I will say that Arm actually was a driving force for the smartphone revolution, and it has been and it will be. In addition to that, not only the smartphone, but I believe all aspects of revolutions, all aspects of sectors is going to create the revolution with Arm chip. For example, cloud. CPU of cloud were mainly using Intel and AMD. For AMD it's like similar things to Intel, Intel compatible -- Intel architecture compatible is, I would say, AMD. -- in the -- that into architecture was almost taking 100% market share until we acquire Arm. Back then, share of cloud by Arm was, I would say, 0 percent. So after our acquisition of Arm, we have hired for cloud engineer for the development of cloud chip. As of today, what happened? Actually, the #1 company of cloud, which is Amazon, AWS, leading-edge technologies by Amazon is actually using Arm for its cloud. Number one, Amazon is using, and also the competitors with Amazon are now that they're using -- start using Arm, and this is just the beginning. We believe it's going to be more and more Arm shares because -- if you remember why Smart Arm was able to take a good share -- market share in smartphone is because it's very cost-effective and power-effective. Biggest cost for cloud is actually not the chip cost, but power cost, not the human resource cost, but this is electricity cost, not the site cost, but actually electricity cost, cloud equals to electricity cost. So when you change the Arm, you can save much of the electricity cost. That's why Amazon decides to switch to Arm cloud. Once Amazon changes to Arm, other competitors also follow suit. CPU computer power, you may say that Intel is better. Actually, that's completely misunderstanding -- because #1 supercomputer, CPU, is Fugaku by Fujitsu. CPU Fugaku is actually using Arm. Everything is Arm there. So Arm chip is being placed to create this world #1 supercomputer. Amazon also see importance in computing power. If computer power is inferior, they don't decide to switch to Arm. So we believe we will be able to see more and more Arm user in cloud sector. And next is automotive. Automotive in the past, the car does not really calculate or car doesn't really compute. You just have engine, you just have a gas and you just have tires. That's the kind of a basic technology. But actually, leading edge technology automotive needs to use, needs to have brain. You have to be able to park automatically, you have to be able to check the risk or need to have an old drive. So there are many things that the car has to do. Recently, EV, like Tesla, it's like running supercomputer. You have auto navigation functions and everything. So I believe there will be more and more running or driving supercomputer. And the biggest cost for such is, I would say, 40% is battery. Smartphone also the power consumption was important. Cloud, again, electricity cost was important. EV, again, battery is going to be important. So 40% is the electricity cost. So how can you save electricity is going to be very important because they're going to compute a lot. But computing a lot, but at the same time does not eat up the electricity, then your choice would be Arm. So the common interest is that you can save the good cost of electricity and you'll be able to provide the service. Next is IoT. This is exactly the things that run by electricity or and again, saving power is the key for this area as well. So right after our acquisition of Arm, IoT market share in Arm was very small back then. Right now, actually became overwhelming #1. And this is what Arm has a presence in IoT. And I believe this is going to be better and better. So leading information revolution becoming engine for information revolution, I would say Arm is going to be the 1 for those. And I believe this is -- Arm is going to be the core of the core of the SoftBank Group. That's my understanding so far. So investing technology evolution, meaning that the leading evolution is Vision Fund and Arm. So as I mentioned in the beginning, that will SoftBank share price go up. That question, I would say, yes, that's my short answer. And I am investing in. But sometimes it drops as well. Time to time, for example, back in year 2000 Internet bubble burst, less than 10 years. So 1994 Index as 1, it became 30x. So 1 became 30 less in 10 years or less than 10 years. If you buy any shares keeping that 10 years and if you hear, it's going to become 30x. You're going to be so happy, right? So if you invest JPY 10 million, then that's going to be JPY 100 million -- JPY 30 million. So that's quite a big increase. So that's why we call it Internet bubble. But year 2000, it has Internet bubble burst, it became 1/3. SoftBank Group share price became 1 over 100. So many of the shareholders are very upset that they make -- they have been calling me liars and everything. But still, we are able to survive. But when you look at the equity value of the overall Internet industry, it became 1/3 and after then, again, less than in less than 10 years, 10 became 100. So without spending 10 years, actually 10 became 100. And this 100, with financial crisis, it dropped again. How much drop it became half. So actually, this graph was used at the previous earnings results announcement, you may say I'm using the same slide again. So Masa getting old and use -- Masa is speaking same story once -- again and again. But actually, time to time, that the people may not be able to believe in SoftBank Group share, I understand that you may feel that way time to time. So that is why I need to repeat this again and again. I think it's worth you hear -- you may tired of this slide, but you may know all of these. But maybe once that you hear this again and again, then you start believing in. So that is why I'm repeating my story again and again, here again. That's how I believe this slide is very important. That's why I'm repeating these slides using again. So 100 became 50 at the global financial crisis. This time, it's not only the Internet stocks, but also the other stocks also fall down. As of today, maybe something similar to this trend. So 100 becomes 50. That's the kind of a trend that we're seeing right now as well, very much similar. But after then, you see in 10 years, 50 became 2,400 again. So if you look back, 1 became 2,000. That's a lot. If you knew earlier, you would like to -- you wanted to know this 10 years before, 20 years before. You may say that. And for your reference, when I found SoftBank Group, I was 100% shareholder of this company. It was a JPY 10 million of the capital. Right now, my share ownership of shareholding is 30-some percent, but back then was 100% because I believe in the company so much. So that's why we don't want to sell. So -- so our value of the share becomes so much. So 1 became 2,000. That's quite normal for me. At the time of IPO of SoftBank Group was JPY 200 billion. JPY 200 billion is now about JPY 20 trillion of the value. So I think it was not bad at all. So when you look at the long term, maybe you can reduce your doubt. That's -- if you're investing against the evolution then you will be disappointed. When you see the pink color portion, that's a drop, you may sell short. -- not only normally sell, but you may sell short, then tentatively you may have a good time, but that continues 5 to 10 years, then that's going to make you terrible loss. So that's why I don't recommend invest against evolution. I would be investing in evolution. So maybe I'm speaking too much and -- but -- let me continue though. I would like to continue. Maybe once I start saying these kind of things, I'm quite repeat, I repeat these kind of things so many times. But again, 2,400 became 1,400. And you may see this surprising and you may be very disappointed, but at the time of financial crisis, it became half, at the time of Internet bubble burst, it became 1/3. But here, it's not -- this is the third time. But again, you will see, I believe that this is going to go up again. And I have no doubt about that. I believe in my vision, and I have no doubt about my vision because this is just a beginning of Internet traffic, it is just a down of Internet revolution. '19-'20, automotive era is probably something similar that we see this time. And now that this is just the beginning. That's how I believe, and how I see the situation. So investing in evolution, but when you see the drop or decline, you may not see the bottom yet. You may see another bottom. That I understand that, too. So when you see that keep declining, how should we have a measure for those risk scenario. If you have SoftBank shares, you have the margin trade for SoftBank Group share, then you may be -- you may want to careful, sometimes that I understand banks can lend you money. You may be able to lend the money up to 50% or 70%, but usually 50% that you'll be able to borrow money. So if you borrow 50% and buy SoftBank Group Corp shares or margin. And if you see the volatility. So that's going to be very risky. You may want to spend enough time. You may want to have a good sleep and hopefully, that we can have a longer relationship. You may see the TV commercial saying that love me a little bit, love me long. So you can borrow a little bit and you want -- I want you to hold long. So that's how I feel for shareholders of SoftBank Group because if you keep it long, I'm a believer that it's going to increase. So how we address risk in one word, loan-to-value, LTV. This is the word that I repeatedly call out. NAV, net asset value and LTV, loan-to-value. So what is loan to value? Again, this is an English word, loan-to-value. So we call it LTV. And what is it? How much debt do you have against your asset value? So I mentioned about buy your margin and if you borrow 50%, then loan-to-value wise, that's going to be 50%. That's going to give you 50% of loan-to-value. If you have JPY 1 million of SoftBank Group Corp and if you borrow JPY 500,000, then loan-to-value is going to be 50%. How much money you borrowed against your asset? That's how you calculate loan-to-value. So this is the ratio of debt against your assets. So SoftBank Group as an investor, we do sometimes buy your margin. And we would like to manage this loan-to-value less than 25% in normal time. Even in emergency, we do not exceed 35%. That's my rule. My internal rule. That's the financial plan of SoftBank Group. And even in an emergency, we don't exceed 35%. In normal time, we manage loan-to-value less than 25%. That's the loan-to-value of our policy. So to appropriately manage loan-to-value and if you want to stop increasing loan-to-value too much, we do need to have appropriate monetization. If the loan-to-value increased too much, if you borrow money too much, then you need to sell, you need to monetize. That's appropriate monetization. And when market is uneasy, if market is risky, then we do need to have a strictly selected investments, don't buy too much or don't buy whatever it is. That's not only for me, I believe that's for you, a good advice for you. And that's our discipline as a Vision capitalist. So once you see the sign of increase in loan-to-value, we need to sell, we need to monetize so that we can lighten our burden, and if the loan-to-value increase, the new investment may need to be super careful and selective. So that's very natural things to say and such natural things that we are trying to do as a discipline. So once we see the down of equity market and 100 became 65, and our value of the assets decreased. So not increasing debt. However, because the decrease of the asset value, therefore, the loan-to-value is increasing. And now once we come to 22%, then people may say that we are very much coming close to 25 , we definitely have a discipline of not exceeding 35% for offshore, but 25% when it comes to closure, we do need to manage well the loan-to-value, so that we can lower loan-to-value to 20.4%. So when equity market is so volatile, not increasing our debt, but decrease our borrowing and that's how we manage our loan-to-value. Of course, we have enough cash position. Even try to reduce the borrowings, but we cannot redeem the bonds immediately because they have maturities. So that's why we try to keep the good cash position. So once we monetize something, we will receive the cash position, and we can have pile up the cash position. So when the situation is uneasy and risky, we need to keep the good cash position by monetizing assets in earlier base, and now that the cash position, we have about JPY 2.9 trillion. And also, we have a financial policy to keep the cash position to cover 2 year equivalent of the bond redemption, always keeping cash position to cover 2 years equivalent of bond redemption in cash basis. So always keep the cash to be able to repay the bonds. That's the internal guidelines or the policy for us. Sometimes it's quite close to only 2 years equivalents, but now that the market is uneasy, so we actually try to have much headroom there for our cash position. So JPY 1.3 trillion is the 2 years equivalent and right now, even bigger, the amount of that is now on our cash position. So this is the last page. Simply put, invest in evolution, we do not invest against evolution. So that's going to ruin you if you invest against evolution. So we always invest in evolution for a long-term period. And when the market is uneasy, I don't have a 50% of loan-to-value. Maybe 20% -- if you have JPY 1 million of the shares. And if you have a debt of JPY 200,000, I think that's something acceptable. So that we like to manage the loan-to-value less than 25%, never be like 50% or anything like that. That's our internal discipline, internal and financial policy. So whenever we see uneasy of the market, we very much focus on our loan-to-value commitment and keep our financial discipline. For long-term period, this is our confidence. I have no doubt about my vision. I have no doubt about my confidence and also -- but at the same time, for short-term period, we are very much careful about management of such financial index. Then you can have a good sleep at night. So I can sleep at night very well. That's what I can say with those internal policies. So when we talk about such, these days, Masa always speak about money, money, money. Where is Masa as an entrepreneur goes. That's -- I don't like such Masa, I don't want to see such Masa. I understand when you say those. But recently, my -- other than my job, my hobby is playing Golf. But this is really sad, golf course, I used to go, I time to time go the visit their time to time. But scenery is different. When you hit the driver and when you -- your second shot, your scene is different, meaning that you cannot get the distance. When I was young, I was able to hit so long, but now the scene is different. People getting old. Operating company up and downs, there are many things you need to operate every day. Then I believe CEO has to be young, and the people may say, how much -- how far are you going to do? So I believe the operating company should be led by young and energetic people. And when you play in the case of golf play that I believe that the CEO has to be able to hit so long distance. But even that I cannot get distance these days, but at least when I play with amateur, I don't recall once I lost the game. So getting old doesn't mean, I lose a game, but actually make you smarter, you don't stretch too much. And actually, not bad at all at the end. So I'm becoming smarter player. So even you get old, there are things that you can do, which is investment here. Body gets old, of course, and you cannot get distance for the Golf, but I have so much motivation to work, even now, I'm looking at the 10 years ahead. I want you to look at me 15 years ahead, 30 years ahead, 50 years ahead of the company, information revolution is just the beginning. This is the time we're going to be what we wanted to do, what I wanted to prove that's still I feel that way. So even playing golf, but still, I play with young people, too, but I always motivated to win the game, not lose. And most -- actually, I always win -- so I would say I'm still full of energy, full of confidence, full of dreams. So that's how -- that's me. Only hairs that goes away, but still I'm still in full energy. So thank you very much for your continued support. Well, that was my presentation. And my staff has been pushing me to stop, but I kept going. Sorry about that.

Anyway, we'd like to move on to the Q&A session. We will inform you how the Q&A session will proceed. We'd like to take questions first from the visiting shareholders, then the questions sent from the dedicated website. We'd like to limit to 1 question per 1 shareholder. Please note that your input on the dedicated website will close in 5 minutes from now. From the floor, we will take up to 6 shareholders. If you names are called out, staff will take you to the speaker's table. And please speak one by one. Before you make a statement, please only state the number on your entry card. You do not need to give your name. We'd like to proceed in that manner. Now shareholders from the floor -- please raise your hand if you wish to make comment. Sorry, I was speaking too long. And I would recommend you to speak up as well. So let us go to the first question. Please go ahead.

My entry card number is #3. Passionate speech. Thank you very much. And I'm so happy and impressed to be able to hear your live speech. So you said that the 5 years, 10 years, 20 years ahead. And Warren Buffett is now age of 91. So hopefully, you Son-san [indiscernible] the company, so that you can be the style of hope for the people around the world. And my question 475 companies as a portfolio company of Vision Fund, you said. And is there any company which can exceed Alibaba? Is there many companies that can exceed Alibaba? That's my question.

Exceeding Alibaba out of 475, maybe 1 or 2. If it goes well, 3, I would say, not less than 1%, I would say. But 1 or 2, if they become such a success, then that's going to give us a return for everything. Vision Fund policy is not us investing in early stage. We have new candidates of the directors of the Board, Mr. David Chao, and he is actually the venture Capitalist who focus on early stage. Venture capital focusing early stage. I think they are on role. So they discover the new company, guiding, leading them and raise them. That's the kind of the role for the venture -- early-stage venture capitalist. For our role, once they became bigger, once they come to Unicorn level, but pre-IPO, those are the companies that we focus on to Investor. It may be more than 1 or 2 companies against 100 can be the candidate for next Alibaba. But for early-stage case, I would say, 1 out of 1,000 to be able to find the Alibaba type of success. Our case, Vision Fund focused on late stage, those to be Unicorn or those companies. So that I would say the possibility is higher to be able to find the next Alibaba. So private, a high-growth and keep growing and possibility exceeding Alibaba, then I would say Arm is the one. Arm is going to be tremendously big and huge company, something equivalent to GAFA type of companies in the future, and I believe Arm has such a possibility to grow that way. And I very much believe in my hypothesis there. So in one word, Arm is the 1, other than Arm our of 475 Vision Fund, I would say 1, 2 or 3 companies, we may be able to find the next Alibaba. You don't have to go Alibaba level, but still JPY 10 trillion, JPY 20 trillion type of growth company, we'll be able to see. I hope I answered your questions. So 100 years in leading the company, maybe that's going to be -- my body is going to be coming along with me. So I don't know about that. But at least I want to -- as an entrepreneur, I may be too old. But as an investor, Masayoshi Son, or as a vision Capitalist, Masayoshi Son, I still full of energy. That's something I can tell you now. And speaking of golf, about just a few years ago, I was -- score was 68. I don't know. If you play golf or not 68 is quite a great result, amateur. I'm amateur and my score was 68. And I believe there is not much people can do the same. That's how I'm full of energy. And maybe I still have some techniques to play a good golf. And when we use brain, I think I still -- I'm capable. The next question.

My entry number is 26. I have been your shareholder for 21 years, and I am appreciative of your stock price. And I am so happy to attend the AGM physically and appreciate staff's efforts to make this happen. And I am interested in Arm like you. And I have a question about Arm. Things like Smart City, carbon neutrality, looking at future internet traffic increase. We believe that Arm has a tremendous potential in terms of technology and management team and talent. Arm was based in Cambridge in U.K. And in the U.K., the -- they were the star in U.K. from investor perspective and people's perspective. But, [indiscernible] if you think about listing Arm in London, is it one of the options that you may consider?

21 years, how old are you? 40-something, 49 years old. Wow, you look young. You have had our share for 21 years. So you purchased our share in your 20s. Wow. I'm sure you have gone through a lot of doubts, concerns. You kept adding our shares, wow. Even [indiscernible] had lot of doubts. No, not. Well, I have full of doubts [indiscernible]. But shareholder like him. So we have seen a lot of ups and downs in our performance. So you purchased at high and you went through the bottom and came back, I'm so impressed. So someone like him is our comrade. We share the same vision. Thank you very much seriously. But you are young, still in 40s. Well, keep buying more shares of ours. Well, not so much margin trading, though. But I hope that you keep holding and increasing our shares. So question about Arm. And so again, impressed how knowledgeable you are about Arm. Yes, a lot of people in the U.K. ask me to have ARM listed in London. So a lot of requests, which I appreciate, and I'm grateful for, but most of Arm's clients are based in Silicon Valley. And talking about U.S. stock markets in the U.S. would love to have Arm. So those are the requires coming from the U.S. Again, I am and we are so grateful for such an appetite. We have not made any decision. We are given advice by experts and bankers from accounting standard perspective, from regulations perspective, was the best option for Arm. We are still studying. NASDAQ is most likely, but we have not made any decision. We are looking at a lot of factors. So we will continue studying before making a final decision. Thank you very much for your question. Next question, please.

My number is 11. I'm just a 5-year old shareholder of yours, and I have 1 question. So Vision Fund, so you have more than 400 companies invested by Vision Fund out of which -- what is your special interest company or what is your favorite one? And also, can you explain the background of that, too? Because when I hear your presentation, I start having interest over those companies and now increasing our investment, my investment in those. So I would like to hear if you have any focus or highlights of the company out of 475?

Yes, thank you very much for your question, 475 million. All companies one by one, before we invest in those companies, I myself personally, have a communication either we have a meeting in-person, we have a zoom call, with those founder or management of the company, then we decide whether to invest or not. So I have met all of them. And every time when we have a meeting, I hear them speech, and I always impressed. And only we invest in company, those that I was impressed. So in their speech or their presentation give me -- makes me excited about the company. In a few days later that I may come down and think again, but there are many exciting companies out there. If you ask me to pick 2 or 3, that's a bit difficult because once I see this is a great company, but sometimes they cannot grow as much as we expected, sometimes some of the company's growth ratio slowed down. And sometimes, we didn't expect too much, but they grow later on. So it's like -- it's semifinal or quarter final of the baseball game at the high school. But once they go to a professional baseball for like a SoftBank hogs, Mr. Seng, Mr. -- other players, they were not really the leading call from the team, but actually, they make a development dramatically and became the great player. So Unicom pre-IPO, 475, and if you ask me to pick 1 or 2, that's quite a difficult choice. But what I can say among these companies, actually, we review the valuation of those companies' daily basis after investment. And public companies of those has a price every day. So we check every day. The share of SoftBank Group is consists of our value of our assets hold like Alibaba or Arm or Vision Fund or -- so it's about JPY 20 trillion over, in this debt we still have about JPY 20 trillion level. But our market cap is JPY 8 point-some-trillion. So you can buy our shares less than 50%. So if you are interested, and if I pick up 1 or 2 because they are private companies, so you cannot buy. Arm is great company, but you cannot buy because they are private still. But you can buy our company because we are public. And automatically, you'll be able to actually -- effectively, you are also investing in ARM, you are investing in Alibaba or investing in those portfolio company of Vision Fund with less than 50% of the price. So you can see this discount you can buy those companies through purchasing our shares, and that's give you, I believe, some kind of safety reasons. So picking up 2 or 3 companies out of 475, that's still difficult. So my answer was a bit indirect, but I can put it that way. I'd like to go to the next one. Any one, please? Anyone else. So here's the last question from the floor. And then questions from shareholders online will follow. So this is the last question from the floor.

My entry number is 27. It's best to hear from you in person. My question is well, Matsuo-san, one of your Board members because, Son-san kept mentioning AI and Dr. Matsuo I think you as a Board Director, what's your view on Son-san's vision? So I'd like to hear from what Matsuo-san thinks.

Dr. Matsuo as you know, he is Professor of Tokyo University, and he is most prominent in the area of AI. So, Matsuo-san, please feel free to take off your mask.

Thank you very much your question. Well, talking about AI like Mr. Masa mentioned earlier, traffic keeps growing and Internet keeps evolving, that's definitely for sure. On top of that, AI technology has evolved in the last 1, 2 years or even in a few months, especially natural language like GPT-3 -- even after that version or technology, a lot of good models are coming up. And me as an expert -- from my perspective, going forward, technological evolution will keep happening. So at this moment, there are a lot of things that AI technology cannot do. But going forward, there are many more things that AI technology can do. So from that perspective, invest in such trend or evolution like Mr. Masa says is a right way, I think.

Dr.Matsuo, yes, he is the leading expert of -- and he has great insights and expertise. And as SoftBank Board Director, we would keep asking for his guidance. So that was the last question from the floor.

Next, we would like to address questions received on the dedicated website today. And we will read out the question first. Yes. First question, you asked us to take a longer view of the stock price, but how many more decades do we have to wait? I think management is not moving fast enough. I want you to focus only on the market cap, not NAV, which is a pie in the sky or castle in the sky.

Quite a tough question, and eye opening question. Thank you very much. So face-to-face, if you are close to me, then that may be difficult to ask me tough question. But over the Internet, probably you can ask a very tough question to me. Thank you for the question. So this person, I believe, have pointed out several things. Don't view on stock price and how many more decades do we have to wait? Many more decades, maybe not decades, I believe, but not 6 months, 18 months. That may be difficult to expect our share price, that's how difficult it is to predict. If there is anybody who know this person is going to be genius, right? But because it's difficult to expect and predict, that's why everybody is have a difficult time. But 5 to 10 years, if we look at that long view, I'm quite confident. So many decades, maybe not, but the 5 to 10 years -- so the PG chestnuts take 3 years and persimmon 8 years to bear fruit. That's how you may need to wait to see a fruitful results. And that's how I have confidence in and I hope you see the same way. And the question I said that NAV has a pie in the sky. But actually, NAV is equal to market cap. So as I've explained earlier, NAV because you -- this is English word so you may be confused. I may not be having the right to understand. But actually, NAV equals to market cap, we just take the debt out from NAV. So market cap or the NAV actually is about the same thing. Only the difference is debt or the borrowings. So if you take the borrowing out from the market cap that gives you the NAV, it's not the pie the sky. Actually, NAV is the value that you should be looking at to measure our company. But to increase NAV, or to increase market cap, not only chasing for money, but we would like to create a future then we are the vision capitalist to create the future. That is why we always stick to Information Revolution AI, and only the leading-edge technology company is the kind of a target for a company to invest. So I hope you understand that way.

Next question. The value of SoftBank Vision Fund's portfolio company seems significantly decreased. What is the plan for the Vision Fund?

Yes, it's decreased. Looking at listed companies globally, most of them have lost their values in the last 18 months or so. Like I explained in the presentation earlier, most companies lost decrease, including SoftBank Group. But my vision, my belief stay the same, have not shaken at all. So again, we are not going to invest against evolution, we are going to invest in evolution. While making sure that LTV is at the right level, less than 25%, like I keep saying. So that's the policy we are committed to and drive safely. When there are risks, you turn the light on when driving in the evening.

Next question. The business environment in China seems to be worsening due to COVID-19 political uncertainties and so on. What is your outlook on China and the future plan for Chinese portfolio companies?

So Chinese companies difficult. The reason I said difficult is because it is for sure technology evolution is happening in China. Great AI technology there in China, 1 after another, and they are making a rapid growth. But the government policy has been giving a large impact to the market. In Chinese policy some very much difficult to protect what kind of policy is going to be announced. So we always need to carefully listen to government's policy and we don't want to stretch too much until we understand our government's policy. And we, SoftBank Group, assets hold are mainly Alibaba. That's past just about 18 months ago. So that moment, about 65% of our assets were Alibaba, that was past. As of today, it's about 20-some percent. So it doesn't -- it's not that once Alibaba falls, everybody falls. That's about 18 months ago. Right now, our ownership -- the ratio amongst our assets for Alibaba is 30% or so -- excuse me, 20% or so, so that we are not depending too much on China and dependency has been decreasing. And also Vision Fund portfolio -- amongst Vision Fund portfolio, the Chinese companies are decreasing. So I believe that we have decreased the dependency on China, or Chinese company. For the future, we would like to carefully listen and watch the Chinese government's policy, and we would like to save drive for the investment. We are not stopping, but we are very much careful even more careful and focused on the move of the Chinese policies.

Next question. Orders progress on ARM IPO, according to some newspaper, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested to list ARM on the London Stock Exchange. Will this affect IP or schedule?

Talking about Arm IPO, there were some hurdles to overcome. In fact, there was only 1 hurdle, which was ARM China. Arm China is a joint venture by Arm and Chinese investors and the former Head of Arm China was [indiscernible], and Board of Directors accept himself. Try to release him, but he rejected. And because he kept on corporate seal, it was difficult to run the business, and it was difficult to get registered, but that issue has been solved. Thanks to new leader and thanks to the government support. So now registration is done, and that means audit can take place. So Arm China hurdle was cleared. And Arm's performance is pretty good. So Arm used to be a listed company. So there is no reason why not can be best. So only things we have to do is just to go through the processes, and of course, you have to look at the market environment to figure out the best timing. But we are steadily working on preparation. Talking about location of the exchange, there are requests for us to get listed on London or New York, but we have not made a decision. So it's just a matter of decision. It should not affect the schedule. But again, we are getting advice from experts before making a final decision. So once we decide location, all we need to do is just to go through the process, and things are going well.

Next question. I want you to invest in Japanese venture companies and guide them. How do you see the environment for Japanese venture companies?

From Vision Fund, especially from -- more specifically from Vision Fund 2. So from Vision Fund 1, there were no Japanese company invested but from Vision Fund 2, 4 companies being invested from Vision Fund 2. Once we can find the good companies, we would like to -- we are planning to increase the investments but the number of unicorns in AI area in Japan is too small compared to U.K., India, Indonesia, Japan. Is much smaller in terms of number of unicorns in AI. Considering the GDP of Japan, it should be more and more company -- the venture companies. Dr. Matsuo, you should do the best from Tokyo University, why don't we -- if we can see the more and more companies expertise starting venture companies, that's going to be great. But from the other universities as well, hoping that we will be able to see more venture companies for AI. Youngsters in Japan, I hope they can use AI as a weapon so that they can increase or enhance the company. Once they become the certain size, I believe that we'll be able to see as a target for the investment of Vision Fund 2 as a later stage investment. So I do have a good of expectation, but behind the schedule or behind compared to the other countries, I believe Japanese government, Japanese media, Japanese education, they should recognize we are behind. If we keep behind, I view about 30 years later of Japan. So hopefully, with everyone's support and everyone's wisdom, that we will be able to have a full support to the AI industry in Japan. Once we start seeing the good companies, of course, Vision Fund will look for that and try to increase the investment.

Next question. You said you will slow down speed of investment. With extra time you have, will you be involved in Arm operations? In the past, Mr. Yanai of UNIQLO and Mr. Nagamori of Nidec Corporation said, they don't like Mr. Son as an investor. I want you to show them what you can do.

Well, Yanai-san, Nagamori-san gave me hard time sometimes, but not like show them what I can do, Arm's future potential and Arm's role, I fully believe from bottom of my heart, after deal with NVIDIA was not anymore, Arm's business plan, Arm's operation. Almost every day, I have been thinking about Arm, and I have been video calling with Arm's new management team. So talking with them, communicating with them almost every day. As a business model, I am involved in Arm's operations. So I am fully committed. But CEO, of course, is Rene. He is the new CEO of Arm. And in fact, he exceeds my expectation. He used to be #2 of Arm, but now he's #1. And he is working on more aggressive business plan together with myself. We are totally aligned in strategy and Vision. So again, count on us, we'll do it.

Next question. Dividend has remained unchanged for some time. Do you expect any increase in the future?

Well, is it better to increase the dividend or should we use those for buyback of shares? I think either way for as a return to shareholders. Increase in dividend or buyback, which is better? That's I wonder. Increasing dividend only available for the shareholders at the time. And if you decide not to be a shareholder anymore after you receive dividend next day, still the dividend. So if you become the shareholder right before the registered time and you can just sell your share. Of course, you won't -- you may want to have a good dividend, even you are the long holder. But when it comes to buyback of shares, that gives you increase in the asset value per share. So for you, with the longer shareholders, then buyback may be more better. But at the same time, we want to be steady in terms of dividend. Once you increase the dividend, that made be difficult to decrease afterwards. And that's going to -- that I will not be able to live up to your expectations. So I don't want to change dividend ups and down. Rather, I would like to be stable dividend distribution. Buyback, we can decide based on the share price at that moment and also our financial position at that moment and decide or we can decide whether there is any good opportunities also for the investment or not. So that for this year, maybe we want to do more buyback. This year, we may not -- we want to do more buyback. So based on the situation along with the circumstance, we can flexibly decide the buyback. So which should be prioritized and which is prioritized, return to shareholders? I'd rather think buyback is better. But at the same time, I want to do the steady dividend. Once we increase, we don't want to decrease as much as possible in terms of dividend payments. So that's how I feel.

Next question. Executive compensation is too expensive, too high while you are losing money. Is it too high?

Well, yes, this year, we lose money. But 1 year ago, we made a profit around JPY 6 trillion. My compensation from SoftBank Group and SoftBank KK JPY 100 million. And my compensation is effectively 0 because the total amount is donated. Maybe Goto-san's compensation is too much. Maybe it's criticized to you, but you have seen decrease of compensation by 50%.

Yes, yes.

So when we made a profit, like JPY 6 trillion last year compared to European or Western executives, not so high, but we are a global company. We want to make sure paying compensation to Western executives to respect their performance and external directors, yes, they are contributing to us. And as an executive officer for their compensation compared to Western companies, I don't think our compensation level is too high, especially at least myself, again, I donate and Goto-san's compensation was cut by half. So again, I don't think it's too much or too expensive.

Next question. In addition to the current buyback program, are you planning to do more buyback?

We will, in 1 word, we have been doing several times. I won't say we do every year or how much or anything like that. That's not something that I should be saying. When at the time when appropriate, we would like to make a judgment, and we announce. So I don't know when and I shouldn't be saying when and I should be how much. But me, myself, I have been looking at many companies to invest. But actually, the SoftBank share is most cheapest because we have more than JPY 20 trillion of assets and a few trillion yen debt. So calculating those around JPY 20 trillion level of the value or the net asset value and the market cap, [ JPY 8.7 trillion ], more than 50% discount. So because we think this is cheap. So that's why we have announced buyback program, and we execute those. So buyback, we will do, but I don't say we're going to do every year, we want to do when and how much. Whenever we decide, we will immediately announce and we will exercise immediately. That's how we do.

Next question you are reviewing business plan as long as 15 years, I wonder if you want to disclose at least partially and considering investment environment like impacted by Ukraine and China, are you seeing any changes in terms of investment opportunity, investment environment?

Yes, we did yesterday reviewing our 15-year business plan. I did this morning, because I am fully motivated and committed. 15-year business plan, I don't think many listed companies have business plan as long as 15 years because not so many CEOs who think they stay in their position for 15 years. And I don't -- I think most CEOs would say that you never know what will happen in 15 years. We have 15-year business plan, and I am serious about it. Yes. A lot of companies, yes, for sure, make 5-year business plan, 10-year business plan. In most cases, they really change. Are you sure, I would say. Because things change, new technology emerge, new competitor emerges and you have your own performance. And once you make 5-year plan, do you review it only every 3 years or maybe 5 years? I would say you're not serious about business. It's not that easy, I would say. Once you decide business plan, are you sure the plan should stay for that term, I don't think you are confident. I think you don't think. My vision stays the same. And strategy really changes. But when it comes to execution, plan for execution, you need to review because things change. That's why I review our business plan every year like COVID-19, Chinese market, Ukraine, every news, every situation. At least once a week, I review business plan. Of course, we need to look at NAV. We need to look at LTV. LTV changes every day because equity value of holding changes every day. That doesn't change every day, but equity value of holdings change every day. That's why LTV changes every day, NAV changes every day. So at least once a week, we have to review to figure out how much more we should invest how much more we should not invest, how much we should exit. Where we should go, where we should allocate more or less, which sectors, which themes, fintech or were, and in 10 years ahead and 5 years ahead, how much NAV should we expect or should we predict every week we review. Do you want to see? We can't show because our secret, if you see it, you'll be surprised. That's for sure. If you would see it, you would like to buy our shares. Well, seriously, we have full of dreams and we have full of confidence. Even though we can't share our business plan with you, but trust us, we have full of dreams in our business plan, but we make sure we take a cautious approach. Next question, please.

SoftBank Corp. has been showing the good performance and good dividend. However, of your subsidiary SoftBank Corp., share price is not doing well. Is it any risk of the Software Group Corp.? So as a management or parent of the SoftBank Corp., how do you see? Why do you think that the share price is not increasing SoftBank Corp., although their business performance is good and dividend is good?

Ken Miyauchi, that's a good question. So why don't you make a [indiscernible] word? Why don't you make a remark? So always Miyauchi-san tell me that. So why don't you take off your mask, and I want you to say whatever you want to say.

Yes. Share price of SoftBank Corp. Once we increased JPY 1,500, exceed and decreased, exceed and decreased. So that's yesterday that we have AGM, and we have increased it JPY 1,500. Always shareholders asking me when can we see the share price of JPY 1,600 or JPY 1,700 or so. So we have [indiscernible] next to me, that our team. Not -- it was originally only telecom business, but we are also covering Yahoo! LINE, ZOZO, PayPay. So new business has been added one after another. So from the sense -- we have about 27,000 employees of which -- those are all mainly focused on the telecom business. However, in the past 6 years or so, 10,000 is focusing on telecom and others actually focusing on other areas. I haven't mentioned this too much, but actually, nontelecom business, we called it Beyond Carrier is making a progress, and I am so confident we're going to make a good success. So as Masa said earlier, 5 to 10 years, if you look at the long term, then -- and also [ Junichi Miyakawa ], my successor CEO is having -- setting high vision and also always building a 10-year plan and Mr. [ Kawabe ] has indeed for the Z Holding, tried to grow its business. So I believe that we're going to do a better performance. So for the current question, I believe -- I doubt that the question is that the SoftBank Group Corp. may sell and offer SoftBank Corp. share, but I'm very happy to hear that question.

Every time I meet Miyauchi-san, he said Son-san don't sell our shares in SoftBank Corp. You have to say you don't sell. That's something that he always keep telling me and reminds me, I don't sell, we don't sell. We try -- we'll try to manage so that we don't have to sell. SoftBank Corp, share price is about JPY 1,500 now. And I believe it's going to go up to 2,000 and so. But that's not my responsibility. That's your guys' responsibility to make sure that we have a good improvement. And I believe they're going to make a good development. And in the SoftBank Corp., leading or the growing company is Z Holdings, which has LINE and Yahoo! So we have Mr. Kawabe. So why don't you make a word.

Thank you. My name is Kawabe from Z Holdings. Starting from last year, I'm also serving as a Director of SoftBank Group Corp. I've been thinking, as I hear in Masa's presentation, AI evolution is going to grow even further. And the best use of AI and increasing the convenience of users, I believe, LINE, Yahoo! PayPay, ZOZO, those are the company that are going to take advantage of AI revolution. I believe we will be the core of the -- our center of AI revolution so that we will be able to provide a good and comfortable service for you and also increase our share price as well.

AI unicorn -- number of AI unicorn is very small, I mentioned earlier. The most user of AI in Japan is probably Yahoo! or the Z Holdings, ZOZO or PayPay. So that's exactly what Mr. Kawabe said. So hopefully AI company -- leader as an AI company, leaders at the Z Holdings and also its parent company, SoftBank Corp. is doing to better develop the business. So we, SoftBank Group Corp., the [ kid ] SoftBank Corp. as a core of the business and origin of our business, and we try not to sell the share of SoftBank Corp. as much as possible. So that's probably I can remind you once again with this opportunity.

Next question. Mr. David, to be elected as a Board of Director. And looking at the skill map, it seems he has a good technical expertise. So maybe I should ask David to make a remark as well.

We'll have an opportunity to hear from him later. So I would rather ask him to talk about himself. He's been in Silicon Valley for 25 years as a venture capitalist. One of the top venture capitalist. He has been watching and investing in advanced technologies. And his performance, he has great performance, and he has a great track record. He has to be expert in technology. It's different from building by himself, but you need to have a strong insight and expertise because he has to work or talk or discuss with technical expertise in the field. So continuous communication with technical experts is one of the keys he has in succeeding as a venture capitalist.

Next question. Do you think that they can compete against RISC-V? Knowing that there is going to be a threat for RISC-V, you have confidence in Arm. So that you invested in Arm back in 2016.

Yes. That's the answer for you. I have confidence in them.

Next question. Dividend had been very long. And you wanted to return to shareholders by raising share price, but share price have not been very high. So as a group company, I wonder if you can reach a payout ratio as much as 3%.

So like I explained before, stable dividend. It's hard for us to raise or decrease dividend. But in exchange for that, we do share buyback sometimes. And the size of share buyback, I think we are the biggest share buyback doer in terms of size and timing. Dividend and share buyback are 2 major tools to return to shareholders. But for long-term shareholder, I think share buyback is better, because value per share increases, and you to have more shares, so SoftBank Group stock is not necessarily dividend stocks whether we want to focus on increasing our enterprise value. Again, our stock prices sometimes go down, go up. But in the long run, our share price trend-wise is on the rise. If you are not patient, well, but not just try to be patient for your own wellbeing.

Next question. Mr. Ken Siegel is also the representative for Morrison & Foerster. And also, you have a business relationship between SoftBank Group and Morrison & Foerster. For serving as in service of the Director, is there any conflict of interest?

Conflict of interest case is rare, at least in -- if there is any transaction that has a conflict of interest, he leaves the room for the resolution when we discuss at the meeting of Board of Directors meeting. So our business content or the status, I believe that the person who knows about our business and the insight should be involved for the decision-making of the company as in management and I believe that is a better way. Then he's a great contributor. And almost every day, we've been having discussion because we do have a lot of legal lawsuit or the discussion or negotiation around the world. So he's been also participating in strategy discussions. And also, there are IPO discussion for some companies, too. So he is a great contributor to the company. So if there is any conflict of interest, for such agenda, we are asking him to leave the room. And our legal team always checking which legal -- law firm that we use depending on the project, and we decide. So we believe that we have a full management on that.

Next question. Again, dividend is too low, JPY 44. It's not -- it's auspicious, should be JPY 77. And if NAV goes up, why don't you pay dividend more?

Well, spare me, I can't get committed to do that, again, for dividend, like I said. Yes, that's our view on dividend.

Next question. From external Director's point of view, what is the risk for SoftBank Group?

Mr. Iijima, can you order one word please.

My name is Iijima. Thank you for your question. I'm originally from MITSUI & CO. And there are various types of risks. For example, pandemic is a risk. Ukraine/Russia is a risk. U.S. and China geopolitical risk, and also, Masa, you mentioned NAV, LTV, those financial risk, interest rate, foreign exchange, supply chain risk, climate change risk. There are so much risks around the world. And this is so-called enterprise cost risk or the comprehensive risk. This is always discussed in the meeting of board objectives. And for those risks, I believe we are well managed and good control over the risk by the company. From the shareholders' point of view, I understand. What is we're aiming for SoftBank Group Corp? So success for Masayoshi Son, I believe that the shareholders was concerned about. And I believe for SoftBank Group Corp. is the kind of a never-ending risk or the never ending concern for us, which is the successful of Masa.

So for me, SoftBank Group Corp. risk is that changing or the evolutions that it's making every time. So everything -- every time is new, and that's the kind of risk related. But that's also inevitable. Before I joined the SoftBank Group as a Director, actually, that I concern more. But once I start serving as a Director, actually well managed and greatly addressed a variety types of the risk and also very quickly addressing any changes to mitigate the risk. So I know better now as a Director.

Ms. Erikawa, how do you think? You can take off your mask.

Yes. Thank you for your question. When you manage the business, run the business, risk always comes along. How can you quickly look at that and review that and make a decision on that is important. And Masa is actually very rare in very quickly addresses the risk and make a decision. And also team members who support Masa is also greatly addressing as a global point of view. I do have a lot of investments globally, but I believe that I'm confident that this company can be a global #1.

I'll speak in English. I would say that SoftBank has truly become an international organization. It's everywhere. It has investment teams in the United States, in China, in Europe, in the U.K. And so it needs to be extremely nimble in identifying international risks, global risks, financial risks that come out of that. And I've been personally just incredibly impressed by the capabilities of the global financial management team and investment management team in identifying, crystallizing those risks and allowing them to be fully analyzed for us on a regular basis, so we can identify them and react very quickly to them in this challenging times that we have. And so it's a constant challenge, but it is ancillary to being a global organization, and it's comforting to have a strong management team that is extremely focused on working and identifying and quantifying the risks for us to address.

Those were the comments from our external directors. Next question.

Last time, you mentioned to decreased investment in China, and S&P 500, NASDAQ index have dropped recently, and you may be concerned about U.S. market now. So what's your view going forward in terms of where to invest?

Like I keep saying, there was a net bubble burst and financial crisis and COVID-19, Ukraine, China, so those 3 big challenges took place at almost same time, which have an impact on stock price. But how long they keep decreasing? Well, it's not going to be forever, they should return. And when they bounce back, which sector will bounce back faster than others. The most advanced companies should bounce back bigger than others. We are decreasing percentage of investment in China. That policy should stay the same for the foreseeable future, but other major markets like U.S., AI revolution -- AI evolution keeps going. So at the time of rebound, we want to again invest more. At the moment, we keep focusing on LTV to drive safely. But probably right before bouncing back, we should be able to start thinking about more investment. So in interest of time, and I speak too much. We will take the last 2 questions in the Q&A session.

So this is the next question. How do you think about monetization of Alibaba share? Do you see the stabilization of financials and I hope that you'll be able to achieve the net debt 0.

Is it good to have about 0 interest-bearing debt? But you do see that this is the growing industry. So I think that we can take to a certain extent of the leverage, but we don't stretch. 25% is the threshold, we don't exceed, and 35% will definitely not exceed for loan-to-value. And under such uneasy, the unstable circumstance, we would like to be even more careful about safety driving and be defensive. That's something that we have announced. So in the meantime, until we see some settle of the market or become more comfortable market, we would like to keep the safety driving and decrease the interest-bearing debt, keeping the good cash position in hands, that's as we announced. It's not debt 0 for interest-bearing debt. That may be too much. And that may lose the opportunity for investment. But still, again, keeping the safe drive. Now this will be the last question.

Last question. Do you have a plan to invest solely on companies like GAFA? Fund 2 seems too small considering how big you are? And what's your strategy to turn around the Vision Fund?

Well, Vision Fund 1. The size was big, and they focused on what we call [ Decacon ], like over JPY 100 billion, that's our ticket size. But when it comes to SoftBank Vision Fund 2, ticket size is smaller, maybe JPY 10 billion, JPY 20 billion and more diversified in terms of where to invest, and somewhere between mid and late stage is the stage that we are looking at when it comes to Vision Fund to investees, I think the approach is better just to be sure to deliver better performance. So I think that's a better approach, a safer approach. So the currently market is tanked and venture capitalists or venture capitals have seen a decrease in value in holdings, but we have expertise, we have talent, and we have processes in place in Vision Fund. So I feel pretty good. But when it comes to valuation of holdings impacted by the global market, yes, they have seen decrease, but focus on companies like GAFA in safe markets. In that sense, Arm is like future GAFA. So when it comes to focused investment to hit big, I would say, Arm. But they don't have extra investment because they make profit, they don't need capital investment, and they deliver cash flow. So they no longer need additional investment. SoftBank has 75%, Vision Fund has 25% of Arm. So we already have Arm, and there should be no need of extra or additional investment. That's how Arm can be run. So again, stay tuned. I am confident about future Arm. Now. Thank you for sharing your time with us. And I would like to close the Q&A session and move on to taking votes on matters for approval. [Voting]

For online shareholders to exercise your vote, please select approve/disapproved for all of the proposals on the website and click Exercise. Please note that all submissions will be made in a single transmission. While we confirm the result of the online shareholders, I would like to take a vote from visiting shareholders. I will -- we have calculations going on back behind this podium, but here, we also like to take a vote at the venue as well. So now I will take a vote on proposal 1, appropriation of surplus or dividend payment. All those visiting in favor of the proposal, please clap your hands. Thank you very much. Now I will take a vote on proposal 2, partial amendment to the articles of incorporation. All those visiting in favor of the proposal, please clap your hands. Well, right now, those online shareholders, please exercise your vote in the meantime. Lastly, I will take a vote on proposal 3, election of 9 Board Directors. All those visiting in favor of the proposal. Please clap your hands. Thank you. Please wait for a moment. We are confirming the result. Yes. Thank you for your patience. I will report the confirmed result. Proposal 2 has received 2/3 of affirmative votes and both Proposal 1 and 3 have received a majority of affirmative votes. Now all the proposals have been approved in the form proposed. This concludes today's agenda, and I hereby declare the 42nd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of SoftBank Group Corp. closed. And last but not least, Mr. Lip-Bu Tan, who is stepping down as Board Director at the conclusion of this meeting would like to say a few words.

First of all, thank you so much, Masa, for the opportunity to serve on the SoftBank Board for the last 2 years. During this period, I strongly believe that our corporate governance have been improved as Masa always try to look out for the shareholders. We are going to be going through a very challenging period for the next 2, 3 years. And I believe the strategy of Masa and SoftBank and wish SoftBank a great success going forward. I will continue to be a supporter of Masa and SoftBank and I'm also very, very delighted to see my good friend, David Chao, to replace me on the SoftBank Board, and I really enjoy working with the fellows board member to support Masa and the capable SoftBank management team. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Thank you, Lip-Bu.

Mr. Lip-Bu Tan has been working as a venture capitalist for Walden and achieving a great success in making a good result. And also he is the Chairman of the Cadence, which is the #1 design tool for the semiconductor. And this company also creates a great growth of the enterprise value. Majority of the clients of the Arm is actually also using the tool of Lip-Bu's company and designing the semiconductor. So he is the Chairman of that company. Therefore, he also has a great knowledge and insight about Arm. And for quite a long time that he's been having a great relationship with Arm. So they serve the same clients and also have a great knowledge about Arm as well. So he has been making a great contribution to our management and the Board. Thank you very much once again. And also, David Chao, our new Board Director, elected at this meeting would like to say a few words.

I am a new Board Director. My name is David Chao. Mr. Son keeps beating me about golf distance or hitting distance. And to somebody's question before, I was born in Japan, and I grew up in China -- Japan, but I have been working in Silicon Valley for a long time. And I learned sales [indiscernible], and we -- I did product marketing in Apple computers. And then I moved to McKinsey as a business consultant and especially in the area of technology practice, I've been providing consulting to Silicon Valley companies. One of them was NeXT Computer. And Steve Jobs was one of my clients. He was a difficult client, but he was a genius. And then 25 years ago, DCM Ventures, which is in The U.S that invests in U.S., in China, in Japan. There was a venture fund, again, invested in U.S., China and Japan at an early stage, I was a co-founder -- and I'm confounder. And asset under management is [ JPY 500 billion ] and I am a general partner, investing globally. In 2006, Forbes American Media Company announced a venture capitalist and I was among the top 10 as the first Japanese investor, and I was enrolled in the Hall of Fame and I have been serving executives of a lot of these companies -- technology companies. One of them was -- one in China. So I have those experiences. And with that experiences, I'd like to help adding values to you, shareholders. And it's very nice to meet you and appreciate your continued support.

Great. He speaks Chinese, Japanese, English. I don't know which one is his mother tongue. But in Silicon Valley for 25 years, he's been working as venture capitalist and also joined the Hall of Fame too. So he has achieved a great results. So I hope as a new director and -- he can be making a great contribution to the future success of SoftBank Group Corp. And I expect on him very much. Thank you. So all the agenda finished. Under such uncertain market or equity market world and the people is also uncertain. And under such a circumstance, I believe we should be watching my favorite video. This was created quite a long ago, and I want you to see that and so that we'll be able to end this meeting. So please, video starts. [Presentation]

So hopefully, there will be peace come back to Ukraine. I sincerely hope so. Thank you very much.

This concludes Annual General Meeting for Shareholders of SoftBank Group Corp. Thank you very much for your participation.