SoftBank Held Talks With Investors on Going Private: FT

(Bloomberg) -- The SoftBank Group over the past week explored an attempt to take the company private, the Financial Times reports, citing three unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.

• SoftBank held discussions with investors including Elliott Management and the Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund Mubadala, the FT reports.
• SoftBank instead decided to move ahead with a plan to sell assets to pay down debt and boost a share buyback.
• Discussion involved founder Masayoshi Son, who began thinking of a leveraged buyout after Gordon Singer of Elliott’s London office expressed interest in buying more SoftBank shares last week, one person said, according to the FT
• The plan was eventually abandoned for a number of reasons, including difficulty in getting an investor consortium together so quickly for a large deal, Tokyo listing rules and tax considerations, multiple people told the FT
• NOTE: Earlier, SoftBank Founder Son Bets on Himself With $7.4 Billion Pledged
• NOTE: March 23, SoftBank Is Said to Plan $14 Billion Sale of Alibaba Shares (3)

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