TOKYO: Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp said on Tuesday it expects to book around $11.12 billion in pre-tax profit on the sale of shares in China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The sale dates from 2016 when SoftBank sold part of its Alibaba stake via derivatives to fund its acquisition of Britain’s ARM.
The transaction leaves SoftBank with a 26 per cent stake in Alibaba worth $101 billion. The Japanese investment firm said it would book the profit in the financial quarter ending June. SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son bought into Alibaba for just $20 million in 2000. The Chinese startup’s growth into one of the world’s biggest e-commerce companies has helped burnish Son’s tech investor credentials.
The windfall comes as one of Son’s biggest tech bets, Uber Technologies Inc, has shown lackluster stock market performance since its market debut last month.
SoftBank booked a 418 billion yen gain on its Uber stake in the financial quarter ended March ahead of the debut. On Monday, Uber’s shares closed 9 per cent below their IPO price at $41.
SoftBank shares closed down 3 per cent ahead of the Alibaba sale announcement, giving the firm a market capitalisation of 10.2 trillion yen. — Reuters
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