SoftBank is cash rich

In 2017, Japanese business magnate and investor of Korean descent, Masayoshi Son, SoftBank founder launched his $100bn Vision Fund, billions have gone in outflows to companies like Grab, the Singaporean  ride-hailing service, WeWork, the US shared office provider. Last week, it was revealed that he had lost $130m of his personal fortune on a bitcoin investment and poured $900m of SoftBank funds into Wirecard, the German payments group fighting an accounting scandal.

Now $23.5bn cash coming from the listing of SoftBank’s mobile unit and Japan’s largest-ever corporate bond sale to retail investors, and Uber’s planned IPO, Mr Son launched a $5.5bn share buyback in February.

The public offering of stock in its mobile subsidiary, in December 19, SoftBank Group shares have risen 41 per cent to a 19-year high, eventhough SoftBank’s $4.5bn bond issuance to Japanese retail investors this month was fully subscribed on the first day, despite Moddy’s and S&P’s low investment grading. SoftBank has already sold over $40bn in bonds to individual investors.

Last week SoftBank shares fell 3.6 per cent  after reports of opposition form the US Department of Justice’s antitrust staff to a merger between T-Mobile and SoftBank’s US mobile carrier Sprint.

SoftBank which invested $7.7bn for a 16.3 per cent stake in Uber via the Vision Fund, could end up nearly $11bn if the US group achieves its planned IPO valuation of $91.5bn.

The Vision Fund contributed 40 per cent to SoftBank’s operating profit last quarter. Yashumitsu Goto, SoftBank’s CEO, said “ we are concerned about the company’s ¥17tn in interest-bearing group debt is overblown, despite keeping enough cash to cover two years’ worth of our debt maturities.”