SoftBank considers IPO for mobile unit

SoftBank Group plans to list its mobile phone business and raise some US$18 billion, the

Nikkei newspaper said, a spinoff that would complete the Japanese telecoms conglomerate’s transformation into a global technology investor.

The parent will sell some 30 per cent of SoftBank. It plans to apply to the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the offering as early as spring, which falls between March and May, and aims to debut the shares in Tokyo and elsewhere, possibly London, around autumn, the newspaper reported, without citing any sources for the information.

The ¥2 trillion (Dh66.1bn) IPO would rival the ¥2.2tn 1987 listing of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in size, the Nikkei said, making it one of Japan’s biggest initial public offerings.

SoftBank said yesterday that a listing of the business was among the options for its capital strategy, but that a definite decision on the issue was yet to be made.

The listing would aim to give the mobile phone unit more autonomy in a group that has become more of an international investment company in recent years, the newspaper said.

SoftBank would use the proceeds to invest in growth, such as buying into foreign information technology companies, the Nikkei said.

SoftBank has been aggressively investing in tech companies worldwide, notably through its $98bn Vision Fund in London, saying last month that a group it leads will buy a large number of shares of Uber Technologies in a deal that values the ride-services firm at $48bn.

“SoftBank’s future will focus less on the mobile phone business and more on allocating cash to build the world’s largest portfolio of investments in future technologies and business models,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

“It makes sense to spin off the mobile-phone business using a public offering that would leave SoftBank in control and provide SoftBank with more cash to pursue its strategy of investing in companies with potentially high growth prospects,” he said.

“It is a way of obtaining capital without adding debt or diluting SoftBank’s equity interests in the growth companies.”

A parent company normally must limit its stake in a subsidiary listed on the TSE First Section to less than 65 per cent, but the requirement can be eased if the unit also lists overseas, the Nikkei said.

SoftBank would use the proceeds to invest in growth, such as buying into foreign information technology companies