SoftBank gets go-ahead for record £16bn mobile flotation
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Monday 12 Nov 2018
(Sharecast News) - SoftBank is to launch a record-beating stock market flotation, after it won approval to spin out its mobile phone business in a ¥2.4trn (£16bn) initial public offering.
The IPO has been given the green light by the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is expected to go ahead on 19 December.
SoftBank wants to rise ¥2.4trn by selling 1.6bn shares or around 37% of the telecom arm, SoftBank Corp, at a tentative price of 1,500 yen each. The IPO will be Japan's biggest and one of the largest ever in the world.
Priority will not be given to institutional investors, however, with around 87% of the new shares issued allocated to Japanese retail investors.
SoftBank, which is a household name in Japan and well known in UK investment circles for its take over of what was then a FTSE 100-listed chip maker ARM Holdings, will retain a stake in the business.
Proceeds will be used to pay down debts and to invest in other companies.
In 2006, SoftBank acquired Vodafone's Japan operations and went on to build a significant telecoms business around them. But chief executive Masayoshi Son is now looking to radically transform the heavily indebted SoftBank, changing it from a telecoms-focused conglomerate into a global investment firm.
SoftBank Telecom reportedly backed a bid to create a new mobile network in the UK earlier this year through Ofcom's auction of airwaves for 5G networks, but in the end failed to win any airwaves.
As well as plans to float the lucrative mobile phone business, he has launched the $100bn Vision Fund, backed by Saudi Arabia. The fund, which already has stakes in Uber and Airbnb, invests in innovative companies across a range of sectors and has become a bigger profit driver than SoftBank's domestic mobile business.
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