SoftBank gets $7.6b T-Mobile stake windfall

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FE Team | Published: December 27, 2023 22:26:40

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TOKYO, Dec 27 (Reuters): SoftBank Group Corp said it would receive shares in telco T-Mobile US worth some $7.59 billion at no additional cost, driving the Japanese conglomerate's shares up 5 per cent.
Masayoshi Son's conglomerate said late on Tuesday it had told T-Mobile US to issue 48.75 million shares in common stock to it after conditions set out in an agreement made as part of the merger of SoftBank's US telco Sprint and T-Mobile were met.
The transaction bolsters the listed assets in SoftBank's portfolio, doubling its T-Mobile US stake to 7.64 per cent from 3.75 per cent currently, following the blockbuster listing of chip designer Arm in September.
"This increases the proportion of listed, measurable equity in hand on (SoftBank Group's) balance sheet, and, even better, proportions of marginable equity relative to indebtedness," Macquarie analyst Paul Golding wrote in a client note.