SoftBank's Masayoshi Son remakes his inner circle with 3 new appointments

Tokyo

MASAYOSHI Son elevated two SoftBank Group Corp executives and one outsider to his inner circle, appointments that become official on Wednesday.

The board approved the nominations of Marcelo Claure, Rajeev Misra and Katsunori Sago as executive vice- presidents. Mr Sago also joined Mr Misra and Mr Claure as a board member after a shareholder vote at the general meeting in Tokyo.

The personnel changes mark the biggest overhaul in SoftBank's top management since Mr Son brought in Nikesh Arora from Google in 2014 and kicked off the telecom giant's transformation into a strategic holdings company.

Mr Son has said that SoftBank's main business is the information revolution, but his investment targets have spanned an eclectic range of endeavours, from lithium mines to insurers and soccer tournaments. SoftBank hasn't elaborated on the exact portfolios of the new appointees, and investors will be keen to find out how they fit into Mr Son's vision.

"SoftBank is a very flexible organisation, so you can expect their roles to evolve over time," said Atul Goyal, an analyst at Jefferies Group. "Until we know more, the only relevance for investors is that of Masa."

He leads SoftBank's US$100 billion Vision Fund, a technology-focused private equity effort with big backers including Saudi Arabia and Apple Inc. Mr Misra has been a SoftBank board member since June 2017.