SoftBank Seeks $2.8 Billion in Financing From Japan Banks

(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to receive as much as 300 billion yen ($2.76 billion) in financing from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

The loans are part of the company’s regular financing, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. The Nikkei reported the news earlier, saying SoftBank is raising money to pay for its $3 billion tender offer to WeWork shareholders.

“We are evaluating our options flexibly while considering cash on hand,” SoftBank spokeswoman Hiroe Kotera said in an emailed statement. Bank loans “are one option, but nothing has been decided,” Kotera said.

SoftBank last month agreed on a $9.5 billion rescue package for WeWork, a deal that handed it 80% of the troubled co-working company. Two weeks later, Masayoshi Son’s company reported its first quarterly operating loss in 14 years -- about $6.5 billion -- after writing down the value of a string of marquee investments, including WeWork and Uber Technologies Inc.

--With assistance from Pavel Alpeyev.

To contact the reporters on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net;Taiga Uranaka in Tokyo at turanaka@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edwin Chan at echan273@bloomberg.net, Russell Ward, Peter Elstrom

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