SoftBank Corp. shares were down as much 3.4% to 1,383 yen ($17.81) on Monday after parent SoftBank Group Corp. announced plans to sell about a third of its holding.
SoftBank Group intends to sell roughly a billion shares worth around $12.5 billion ($16.97 billion) of its mobile-carrier arm, at a discount between 3% and 5%. This is part of a broader push to monetize the larger investment-focused company’s assets to help it weather the pandemic period’s economic disruption and raise funds for fresh investments in tech companies. Its shares were up as much as 4% in Tokyo Monday.
The telecom unit’s initial public offering in December 2018 was a perfect storm of bad news. Just days before the opening bell, the company suffered a rare network outage which left users across Japan without a signal for more than four hours. Investors were also spooked by e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc.’s planned entry into Japan’s wireless market and a global equities sell-off. SoftBank Corp.’s shares are trading about 7% below its debut price of 1,500 yen.
