SoftBank’s record IPO hits $23.5B

tokyo — SoftBank Group Corp is set to raise ¥2.65 trillion ($23.5 billion) in Japan’s biggest-ever IPO - a share sale widely regarded as finalising the group’s transition from domestic telco to a monolithic global tech investor.

Telco unit SoftBank Corp on Monday priced its stock at ¥1,500 apiece, as previously indicated. It also said it will sell all extra shares set aside for excess demand, taking the total just shy of the record $25 billion raised in 2014 by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, a SoftBank Group portfolio company.

Demand was well above the number of shares on offer SoftBank Corp statement

The group, which controls the world’s biggest tech private equity fund at nearly $100 billion, will use the proceeds to invest in startups which have ranged from tiny games makers to US ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies Inc.

“Demand was well above the number of shares on offer,” SoftBank Corp said, declining to disclose by how much.

The stock will debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s first section on December 19. The IPO pricing comes just days after Japan’s third-largest mobile phone network provider by subscriber numbers suffered a rare nationwide service outage. SoftBank said the disruption would not affect its earnings or dividend forecast.

But other causes of concern abound. The government wants to see a decline in mobile phone charges just as competition is set to increase with the market entrance next year of e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc. Moreover, Tokyo plans to ban government purchases of telecommunications equipment from Chinese maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, sources said.—