SoftBank NOT to cash in BABA stake# Stock
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Japan's SoftBank won't cash in Alibaba stake on market debut
By Sophie Knight and Yoshiyasu Shida
TOKYO Wed May 7, 2014 10:18am EDT
(Reuters) - SoftBank Corp's (9984.T) billionaire CEO Masayoshi Son said his
company would not cash in any of its stake in Chinese online retailer
Alibaba when it lists in New York in what could be the largest market debut
ever by a technology company.
SoftBank, whose acquisition sprees have left it holding about $90 billion in
interest-bearing debt and could pile on much more, is expected to see its
34.4 percent holding in Alibaba valued at more than $50 billion after the
initial public offering.
But Son said the Chinese company, which controls 80 percent of online
commerce in that country, was an indispensable strategic partner that was
unique in his mobile Internet empire.
"There are 1,300 companies in the SoftBank group but the only ones I sit on
the board of are SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and Alibaba," Son said at a briefing
following the release of SoftBank's annual earnings on Wednesday.
SoftBank is the biggest shareholder in Alibaba and some market watchers had
speculated it would use the IPO to bank some of his returns on the
investment, initially just $20 million plus a handful of additional fund
injections that in total came to less than $200 million.
SoftBank spent $21.6 billion to buy No.3 U.S. mobile operator Sprint Corp (S
.N) last summer and is keen to follow that up with an acquisition of No.4 T-
Mobile US Inc (TMUS.N).
Son said that, while SoftBank's percentage stake in Alibaba may dip due to
dilution when new shares are issued in the offering, he would not be selling
any of it off.
"Of course that doesn't mean we promise to hold it forever, but for now we
consider Alibaba a core strategic partner," he said.
Son said he first met Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma in 2000 while on a
hunt for investment opportunities in China. He plucked the company from 20
other prospective firms after Ma impressed him with a short presentation.
"I just liked the smell of the company... I invested with the intention of
having a long-term partnership where we co-operated with each other and
stimulated each other," Son said.
"When we invested in them they were generating zero revenue and so I think
that since then we had somewhat of a positive influence on them."
The company said its holding in Alibaba added 66.78 billion yen ($657.57
million)to its pretax profit for the fiscal year to March 31.
RECORD PROFIT
SoftBank posted a record 1.09 trillion yen operating profit for the 2013/14
fiscal year ended on March 31, up 36 percent from last year and just above
the 1.07 trillion yen average of 14 analyst estimates according to Thomson
Reuters StarMine.
That makes SoftBank the only Japanese company to top 1 trillion yen in
operating profit apart from Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and NTT DoCoMo (9437.
T), the country's biggest mobile carrier by subscribers.
With earnings from its most recent acquisitions, including Sprint, SoftBank
surpassed both NTT DoCoMo and No.2 Japanese carrier KDDI Corp (9433.T) in
both sales and profit for the year ended in March.
It also raised its sales target for the current year to 8 trillion yen from
7 trillion yen, citing a boost from its acquisition of handset distributor
Brightstar, but maintained a previous goal of achieving 1 trillion in
operating profit.
That would represent an 8 percent drop on the year as it loses one-off
benefits from the consolidation of some of its units, including mobile games
developer GungHo Online Entertainment Inc (3765.T). It is also slightly
below analyst projections of 1.09 trillion yen.
SoftBank is still reaping gains, however, from its domestic mobile business,
where operating profit grew 18 percent to 609 billion yen in 2013/14 after
its incorporation of mobile game app developer GungHo Online Entertainment (
3765.T) and as it continues to enjoy brisk sales of Apple Inc's APPL.O
iPhone despite NTT DoCoMo beginning to offer the popular smartphone from
last September.
On Wednesday, Son reiterated his ambition to replicate in the U.S. market
his success in Japan in taking on larger rivals, but declined to comment on
progress on the proposal to buy T-Mobile, which has hit regulatory snags.
"It's very clear that the No.1 and No.2 companies in the U.S. dominate the
market," he said, referring to AT&T Inc (T.N) and Verizon Communications (VZ
.N).
"We think that we need to increase scale by investing in infrastructure and
increasing our spectrum holding. But I have no comment as to how we will
move forward with that at this time."
(Editing by Edmund Klamann and Tom Pfeiffer)
By Sophie Knight and Yoshiyasu Shida
TOKYO Wed May 7, 2014 10:18am EDT
(Reuters) - SoftBank Corp's (9984.T) billionaire CEO Masayoshi Son said his
company would not cash in any of its stake in Chinese online retailer
Alibaba when it lists in New York in what could be the largest market debut
ever by a technology company.
SoftBank, whose acquisition sprees have left it holding about $90 billion in
interest-bearing debt and could pile on much more, is expected to see its
34.4 percent holding in Alibaba valued at more than $50 billion after the
initial public offering.
But Son said the Chinese company, which controls 80 percent of online
commerce in that country, was an indispensable strategic partner that was
unique in his mobile Internet empire.
"There are 1,300 companies in the SoftBank group but the only ones I sit on
the board of are SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and Alibaba," Son said at a briefing
following the release of SoftBank's annual earnings on Wednesday.
SoftBank is the biggest shareholder in Alibaba and some market watchers had
speculated it would use the IPO to bank some of his returns on the
investment, initially just $20 million plus a handful of additional fund
injections that in total came to less than $200 million.
SoftBank spent $21.6 billion to buy No.3 U.S. mobile operator Sprint Corp (S
.N) last summer and is keen to follow that up with an acquisition of No.4 T-
Mobile US Inc (TMUS.N).
Son said that, while SoftBank's percentage stake in Alibaba may dip due to
dilution when new shares are issued in the offering, he would not be selling
any of it off.
"Of course that doesn't mean we promise to hold it forever, but for now we
consider Alibaba a core strategic partner," he said.
Son said he first met Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma in 2000 while on a
hunt for investment opportunities in China. He plucked the company from 20
other prospective firms after Ma impressed him with a short presentation.
"I just liked the smell of the company... I invested with the intention of
having a long-term partnership where we co-operated with each other and
stimulated each other," Son said.
"When we invested in them they were generating zero revenue and so I think
that since then we had somewhat of a positive influence on them."
The company said its holding in Alibaba added 66.78 billion yen ($657.57
million)to its pretax profit for the fiscal year to March 31.
RECORD PROFIT
SoftBank posted a record 1.09 trillion yen operating profit for the 2013/14
fiscal year ended on March 31, up 36 percent from last year and just above
the 1.07 trillion yen average of 14 analyst estimates according to Thomson
Reuters StarMine.
That makes SoftBank the only Japanese company to top 1 trillion yen in
operating profit apart from Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and NTT DoCoMo (9437.
T), the country's biggest mobile carrier by subscribers.
With earnings from its most recent acquisitions, including Sprint, SoftBank
surpassed both NTT DoCoMo and No.2 Japanese carrier KDDI Corp (9433.T) in
both sales and profit for the year ended in March.
It also raised its sales target for the current year to 8 trillion yen from
7 trillion yen, citing a boost from its acquisition of handset distributor
Brightstar, but maintained a previous goal of achieving 1 trillion in
operating profit.
That would represent an 8 percent drop on the year as it loses one-off
benefits from the consolidation of some of its units, including mobile games
developer GungHo Online Entertainment Inc (3765.T). It is also slightly
below analyst projections of 1.09 trillion yen.
SoftBank is still reaping gains, however, from its domestic mobile business,
where operating profit grew 18 percent to 609 billion yen in 2013/14 after
its incorporation of mobile game app developer GungHo Online Entertainment (
3765.T) and as it continues to enjoy brisk sales of Apple Inc's APPL.O
iPhone despite NTT DoCoMo beginning to offer the popular smartphone from
last September.
On Wednesday, Son reiterated his ambition to replicate in the U.S. market
his success in Japan in taking on larger rivals, but declined to comment on
progress on the proposal to buy T-Mobile, which has hit regulatory snags.
"It's very clear that the No.1 and No.2 companies in the U.S. dominate the
market," he said, referring to AT&T Inc (T.N) and Verizon Communications (VZ
.N).
"We think that we need to increase scale by investing in infrastructure and
increasing our spectrum holding. But I have no comment as to how we will
move forward with that at this time."
(Editing by Edmund Klamann and Tom Pfeiffer)