Softbank May Lose USD748M On Trading

Japanese wireless company Softbank Corp. said it will book a USD748 million derivatives loss for 2008, but will increase its annual operating profit forecast by 3%. The company warned of the losses in October, after believing its investments in synthetic collateralized debt obligations would sour. It said that eight or more defaults in the CDOs would lead to a 75 billion yen loss, and a spokesman recently told Reuters that eight had in fact defaulted.