TOKYO, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Japanese technology investor

SoftBank Group is expected to report a 287 billion yen

($1.87 billion) quarterly profit on Tuesday, boosted by

successful portfolio company listings even as a stronger yen

dampened foreign currency-denominated gains.

Analysts are also looking out for signs of new investment

momentum driven by SoftBank's robust balance sheet and

management's bullish stance on artificial intelligence (AI).

The net profit forecast for July-September is based on the

average of four analyst estimates compiled by the London Stock

Exchange Group ( LDNXF ), and compares with a loss of 931 billion yen in

the same period last year.

MST analyst David Gibson estimates an investment gain of

$3.9 billion for the quarter, with the IPOs of two Indian

companies - Brainbees Solutions and Ola Electric

- seen generating income of $0.9 billion and $1

billion, respectively.

A drop of around 10% in the value of the dollar versus the

yen over the period is expected to weigh on SoftBank's bottom

line.

Analysts are eagerly awaiting SoftBank's investment plans,

after Founder and Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son told an

investment summit in Saudi Arabia last month that he was saving

tens of billion dollars for the next big move.

The pace of SoftBank's new investments is already trending

upward, reaching $1.9 billion in the April-June quarter, up from

$0.3 billion in January-March. In early October, SoftBank also

joined in the latest funding round for ChatGPT operator OpenAI.

Analysts are particularly interested in SoftBank's reported

efforts to manufacture AI chips to rival market leader Nvidia,

potentially through a collaboration between chip designer Arm

, in which it holds a 90% stake, and recently acquired

chip manufacturer Graphcore.

They note that SoftBank made a deal with Arm to license its

intellectual property in the most recent quarter, worth $43.2

million in revenue, which may be related.

In addition, SoftBank's sound financial position makes a

large-scale investment possible.

It's balance sheet is "near the strongest it has been over

the past five years", wrote Morningstar analyst Dan Baker in a

note, adding that both S&P Global Ratings and Japan Credit

Rating Agency upgraded their SoftBank credit ratings earlier

this year.

Although SoftBank announced a $3.4 billion share buyback

three months ago, this was substantially below what some

analysts had called for and leaves ample room for further

investment, they added.

($1 = 153.3100 yen)