Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group said Friday it was selling its stake in its Japanese subsidiary, SoftBank Corp.
SoftBank (SFTBF) will own more than one million shares in SoftBank Corp. sold for a value of 1.47 trillion yen (almost $ 14 billion). The offer would reduce SoftBank Group’s stake in the carrier from 62% to 40%.
The shares of SoftBank Group closed 3% in Tokyo on Friday.
But in the statement announcing the spot sale, SoftBank noted “continued uncertainty in the market environment due to concerns about a potential second or even third wave of Covid-19.”
The company already announced plans back in March to raise some 4.5 trillion yen ($ 43 billion) by selling assets. The sale of mobile carriers is on top of that.
SoftBank Group “believes that it is necessary to further expand cash reserves [that amount] to ensure flexible options to respond to changes in the market environment, “the company said Friday.
The March announcement was a surprising change of tack for SoftBank founder and CEO Son, signaling a step back from his high-risk style of investing. But the pandemic caused devastation on its global investments as well Uber (UBER) and WeWork were introduced as fierce restrictions on work, travel, and social interaction.
Son said during a earnings presentation earlier this month that the company had already reached the vast majority fan the original cash target by selling its stake in US carriers Sprint and T-Mobile for about $ 22 billion, and guaranteeing $ 14.7 billion in financing against Alibaba (BABY) shares and the sale of $ 3 billion worth of shares in their carrier.
Asset fire sales helped SoftBank Group return to profitability last quarter after posting a historic annual operating loss of 1.36 trillion yen ($ 12.7 billion) – its worst ever. The losses were driven by the splashy $ 100 billion Vision Fund, which suffered business losses of 1.9 trillion yen ($ 17.7 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March.
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