With SoftBank rally, founder Masayoshi Son adds $12 bn to fortune

SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son has enjoyed a $12 billion renaissance the past three months, easing the pressure on his intricately engineered personal finances.

With SoftBank Group’s shares surging to their highest price in two decades on Thursday, Son’s net worth hit $20 billion, more than doubling from $8.4 billion in March, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It is the first time the 62-year-old’s fortune has topped $20 billion since January 2013, when the ranking first started tracking his wealth.

The calculation excludes about $13.3 billion of his SoftBank Group shares pledged as collateral, representing some 40 per cent of his stake, according to regulatory filings. A further 26 per cent of his holding is lent out for a fee to different entities, mostly brokerages, likely to add liquidity to the market. Those shares are included in Son’s net worth calculation because he retains control over them.

“For those lending shares, it’s about creating incremental revenue,” said Andrew Dyson, CEO of the International Securities Lending Associa­tion. He noted such transactions ease the execution of trades, while enabling hedging and shorting strategies. “Lend­ing out securities generates hundreds of millions of dollars in fees a quarter.”

SoftBank sha­res have sur­ged 133 per cent from a low in March, taking the Tokyo-based company’s market value to $123 billion. While its Vision Fund lost almost $18 billion in the latest fiscal year as it wrote down the value of investments in WeWork, Uber Technologies and others, record equity buybacks and a series of wins have helped the stock recover.

SoftBank sold part of its stake in T-Mobile last month, and an online home-insurance provider that it’s backing more than doubled on its US debut in July.