SoftBank Fund to Use Tech Stakes for $4 Billion Loan, FT Says

(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund plans to borrow about $4 billion against its equity stakes in Uber Technologies Inc. and other startups, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The fund is discussing the loan with banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and would use as collateral its holdings in Guardant Health Inc. and Slack Technologies Inc., as well as the ride-hailing giant, the paper said.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has been on a constant hunt for capital as he seeks opportunities for investment in technology startups. He set up the $100 billion Vision Fund as the largest such investment vehicle on record, taking stakes in companies from ride-hailing and office-space sharing to indoor agriculture and satellites.

The Vision Fund is the largest shareholder in Uber, which went public this month. Slack plans to go public this year.

Bloomberg reported last year that SoftBank was speaking to banks arranging its Japanese wireless business’s listing about a multi-billion loan using stakes in some of its holding companies as collateral. The IPO’s top underwriters had given non-binding assurances for a loan of about $9 billion for its Vision Fund, the people said.

SoftBank is no stranger to margin loans. Last year it was in talks to use its stake in online retailer Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as collateral for an $8 billion loan from a group of banks in one of the biggest deals of its kind, Bloomberg reported.

The Japanese company has also weighed a variety of ways to pump more cash into the Vision Fund. Proposals include raising more capital, persuading state-backed investors in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi to waive their rights to debt repayments or taking out more bank loans.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan

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