Tokyo, Sep 29 (IANS) :Battered by heavy losses, Masayoshi Son-run SoftBank is laying off at least 30 per cent of employees at its loss-making Vision Fund, a media report said on Thursday.

Bloomberg reported that the company has started briefing some employees -- around 150 -- about being laid off. The SoftBank Vision Fund unit had about 500 employees as last reported.

Last month, SoftBank Group had revealed plans to sell nearly 242 million American depository receipts (ADRs) of Chinese behemoth Alibaba, that will help it gain 4.6 trillion yen ($34 billion) in pre-tax gain from the sale.

The Japanese giant, which suffered losses running into billions of dollars in the past two quarters this year, said that the sale will trim its stake in Alibaba to 14.6 per cent, a decrease from 23.7 per cent at the end of June.

Earlier this year, investment bank Jefferies had predicted that SoftBank would need "$40-45 billion of cash this year" if it were to sustain.

SoftBank recorded net loss of 5.3 trillion yen (nearly $40 billion) in total for the first six months of the year.

Masayoshi Son, Founder and CEO of Softbank, had warned unicorns and startups to prepare for a harsh and longer funding winter, as the company posted disastrous results for the second straight quarter this year.