Katerra

By 2020, Katerra was financed both by SoftBank's Vision Fund equity and by receivables financing from Greensill Capital, which packaged roughly US$440 million of Katerra notes into Credit Suisse supply-chain funds ³. When those notes defaulted in 2020, the parties executed a recapitalization dated December 30, 2020, in which SoftBank injected approximately US$440 million into Greensill, Greensill cancelled about $435 million of Katerra's debt in exchange for an approximately 5% equity stake, Greensill was to repay Credit Suisse from the SoftBank funds, and SoftBank was to be repaid out of recoveries from Katerra ³. SoftBank simultaneously led a $200 million recapitalization of Katerra through Vision Fund 1, the second $200 million tranche that year, taking a majority stake ³.

Analysis of the transaction records indicates SoftBank held positions on multiple sides of the same financing loop, including an approximately 15–20% stake in Greensill (about $1.5–1.7 billion invested in 2019), more than $500 million in the Credit Suisse funds that financed Greensill, and the controlling equity position in Katerra itself ³. SoftBank's Rajeev Misra approved positions across these layers ³. Internal Greensill correspondence from November 2020 stated that the firm “seem[s] to have gone through all the US$440m intended for Katerra having only paid US$70m toward it” ³. The arrangement produced litigation between Credit Suisse and SoftBank over the roughly US$440 million loss, which Credit Suisse won ³. In related UK litigation over the Greensill-linked exposure, SoftBank has publicly maintained that it was itself misled and acted in good faith, a stated position that, if accepted, would distinguish its role from that of other parties to the financing chain ³.

Katerra and 32 affiliated debtors filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, on June 6–7, 2021, under jointly administered main bankruptcy case 21-31861 ². CourtListener records confirm affiliate Katerra Engineering LLC at docket 21-31868, jointly administered under 21-31861, filed June 6, 2021 in the Southern District of Texas ². The estate listed estimated liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion and assets of $500 million to $1 billion, with the top-40 unsecured claims alone listing at least $73.9 million owed to construction contractors ². Reporting cited by the case record identified the March 2021 collapse of Katerra's lender Greensill, combined with the COVID-19 environment and an inability to raise further capital, as the trigger for the filing ².

As majority investor, SoftBank bore the majority of the more than $2 billion lost by Katerra's investors, while construction contractors absorbed the unsecured trade losses ¹². Later adversary proceedings, docketed as Katerra v. Curtis (23-03094) and Katerra v. Rock (23-03095), named the company's former chief financial officer ². Masayoshi Son subsequently named Katerra alongside WeWork and Greensill among his largest investment failures ¹.