SoftBank Has Spent $2.3 Billion to Buy Own Shares Since March
SoftBank Has Spent $2.3 Billion to Buy Own Shares Since March
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. spent about $2.3 billion in the past two months buying back its own shares, adding market support as the Japanese company prepares to report record losses next week.
The company bought 250.6 billion yen of its own stock since March 13, about half of the 500 billion yen budget for the re-purchase slated to run through next March. It purchased 58,648,400 of its own stock as of April 30, amounting to roughly 40% of the 145 million planned total, SoftBank said in a statement on Friday.
The Tokyo-based company, led by founder Masayoshi Son, has said it expects to book a record 1.35 trillion yen operating loss for the year ended March 31 when it reports financial results Monday. SoftBank had been among the most aggressive investors in startups in recent years, but it is now marking down the value of stakes in companies such as WeWork, Oyo Hotels and Uber Technologies Inc.
The buyback announced in mid-March initially failed to lift SoftBank’s stock amid concerns the conglomerate’s portfolio of startups is particularly vulnerable to the economic shock from the coronavirus pandemic. When the shares plunged more than 30% in the week that followed, Son took an unprecedented step to unveil a second re-purchase of as much as 2 trillion yen.
The stock gained almost 70% since SoftBank said it plans to sell assets to raise as much as 4.5 trillion yen over the coming year to buy shares and slash debt. The shares closed little changed at 4,574 yen in Tokyo on Friday, ahead of the buyback announcement.
The company’s Vision Fund business, technology investments that contributed more than half of its reported profit a year ago, has swung to a projected 1.8 trillion yen loss. The company’s overall net loss will likely reach 900 billion yen.
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