SoftBank to sell $12.6bn worth of mobile unit
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SoftBank to sell $12.6bn worth of mobile unit

SoftBank building NEW .jpg

SoftBank Group Corp has confirmed the sale of approximately 1.33 trillion yen ($12.5 billion) in stock of its mobile business unit.

According to Bloomberg, the deal is said to be worth 927 million shares in SoftBank Corp, amounting to close to a third of its stake in the unit. The stock is being offered at a discount of between 3-5%, with the shares valued at 1,431.5 yen as of Friday 28 August.

The wireless unit said it will buy back 1.68% of its shares for about 100 billion yen ($944.6 million).

Additionally, SoftBank reportedly has plans to sell 223.5 million shares to overseas investors in Europe and Asia, excluding the US and Canada, with an extra allocation of 33.5 million shares. Domestic investors will get 670.5 million shares.

The shares will be handed over between 23 and  25 September, or five business days after the pricing and other details have been agreed.

Since the story broke of plans to sell a third of its unit, SoftBank Corp. fell  3.4% to 1,383 yen as of Monday 31 August.

The news followed reports back in May that SoftBank intended to sell a 5% stake in its wireless telco, valued at $3.1 billion.

At the time the company said the deal formed part of its plan to sell $41 billion (JPY4.5 trillion) of its assets, which the group intends on using to repurchase up to $18 billion (JPY 2 trillion) of its common stock with the balance to be used for pay down of debt, bond buybacks and increasing cash reserves.  

In addition, by June SoftBank confirmed that it is to sell around two-thirds of its stake in T-Mobile US in order to raise 2 trillion yen (US$21 billion).

SoftBank has also been named as one of the bidders for TikTok in the US, part of the consortium made up of Google parent company Alphabet, and Walmart.

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