SoftBank Is Not 'SoftPunku' Says CEO in Defence of Strategy

SoftBank Group Chief Executive Masayoshi Son mounted a defence of his investing decisions on Thursday, saying the value of the Japanese conglomerate's holdings has recovered to pre-coronavirus outbreak levels.

"We have worried a lot of people who thought that SoftBank is finished or is 'SoftPunku'," Son told a shareholder meeting, using a play on the word "puncture" used colloquially in Japanese when something is broken.

The rise in corporate value was driven by the growth of SoftBank's stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and following the merger of its US wireless unit Sprint with T-Mobile US.

Sprint, which Son loaded up with debt and made repeated attempts to merge with T-Mobile before successfully closing the deal in April, has delivered an internal rate of return of 25 percent, Son said.

SoftBank has undertaken a complex transaction to divest part of its T-Mobile stake to raise $20 billion (roughly Rs. 1.51 lakh crores). That brings the total from an asset sale programme, which includes monetisation of stakes in Alibaba and wireless carrier SoftBank Corp, to $35 billion (roughly Rs. 2.64 lakh crores) or 80 percent of the planned total, Son said.

Those funds are being allocated to share buybacks and to increase SoftBank's financial leeway after the group was hit with a record annual loss in the year ended March as Son's tech investments faltered.

The record JPY 2.5 trillion (roughly Rs. 1.76 lakh crores) share buyback programme, for which SoftBank has spent JPY 500 billion (roughly Rs. 35,279 crores), means shareholders should temper expectations around dividends, Son said. SoftBank has passed resolutions covering the next JPY trillion (roughly Rs. 70,576 crores) in buybacks.

SoftBank's shares closed flat following the presentation, with the benchmark index down 1 percent. Its share price has doubled from March lows.

Son said he has reduced his compensation following SoftBank's poor financial performance but defended the high pay for executives such as Rajeev Misra, head of the conglomerate's $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7.56 lakh crores) Vision Fund which recorded a JPY 1.9 trillion (roughly Rs. 1.34 lakh crores) operating loss.

Other Japanese corporates should overhaul compensation schemes to reward risk-taking, Son said.

"What are you scared of?" he said during the presentation.

The shareholder meeting saw the appointment of new board directors including entrepreneur Lip-Bu Tan, who was elected in the face of the opposition of proxy adviser Glass Lewis.

SoftBank has formed a committee to oversee nomination and compensation of board directors, to be chaired by outside director Masami Iijima, chairman of trading house Mitsui & Co.

Son also said he is stepping down from the board of Alibaba, following Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma's departure from SoftBank's board.

The 62-year-old businessman has previously said he will hand over management at SoftBank to a successor in his sixties.

"I may go a little beyond that," Son said on Thursday.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

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