SoftBank unveils US$3.4 billion buyback amid pressure from investors
JAPANESE technology investor SoftBank Group said on Wednesday (Aug 7) it plans to buy back a hefty US$3.4 billion of its shares, answering in part calls from Elliott Management and other shareholders to bolster its stock price.
Masayoshi Son’s tech behemoth has been under renewed pressure to purchase shares given that its market capitalisation is far less than the value of its portfolio assets. The pressure comes at a time when SoftBank has been seeking to take a bigger role in artificial intelligence – albeit with a much cautious investment stance than in the past after a period of rebuilding its finances.
It unveiled a plan to buy back up to 6.8 per cent of shares over the next 12 months, taking some of the sting out of an unexpected net loss for April-to-June period.
That said, the plan falls short of calls for a bigger buyback programme and is just a fraction of SoftBank’s 2.5 trillion yen (S$23 billion) buyback announced in 2020, its biggest ever.
Elliott has pressed SoftBank for a US$15 billion buyback programme, a person familiar with the matter said in June. The activist US fund founded by investor Paul Singer, which successfully lobbied for the 2020 buyback, has rebuilt a position in SoftBank worth more than US$2 billion, the person added.
Chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto told reporters the board decided to proceed with a new share buyback after much discussion, judging it to be in the interests of the company.
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“It’s certainly possible that we may decide on another share buyback programme at some point in the future. Shareholder return is always a main theme of discussion among the board of directors,” he said.
SoftBank’s first-quarter loss of 174.3 billion yen was roughly a third of the loss logged in the same period a year earlier but far short of an LSEG consensus estimate for 104.7 billion yen profit. The figures are based on reported net income attributable to shareholders and reflected a hit from higher taxes.
On a separate measure, net income, it swung to a modest profit of 10.5 billion yen for the period. Its Vision Fund investment unit booked an investment gain of 1.9 billion yen after an investment loss of 58 billion yen in the previous quarter.
SoftBank, which had US$31 billion of cash on hand as of end-June, has been rebuilding its finances after the failure of high-flying office-sharing startup WeWork and after some of its tech firms it is invested in through its Vision Funds fell out of favour among investors.
Goto said SoftBank is investing with the advent of what it called an age of artificial superintelligence in mind. Recent acquisitions include Graphcore, a British artificial intelligence chipmaker, for an undisclosed sum. It counts its 90 per cent stake in chip designer Arm Holdings as its crown jewel asset.
The results come amid much market turmoil, particularly for large-cap Japanese stocks and major tech companies which have been hurt by a massive unwinding of yen carry trades and US recession fears.
SoftBank’s shares slumped almost 20 per cent on Monday but have since recovered. They finished up 5.2 per cent on Wednesday before the results. REUTERS
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