SoftBank Group shares at 20-year high on buybacks, Nvidia-Arm deal

SoftBank Group shares climbed to their highest in two decades, a sign founder Masayoshi Son is recovering from a rocky year marked by setbacks from the coronavirus and losses at startups such as WeWork.

SoftBank rose for the eighth day in a row to finish at 6,955 yen, the highest since March of 2000. The stock had breached 6,900 yen in August before revelations that Son had begun trading options on tech stocks, a potentially risky endeavor that spooked some investors.

After a record fall in its share price in March, SoftBank unveiled plans to offload 4.5 trillion yen ($42.6 billion) in assets and buy back an unprecedented 2.5 trillion yen of its own stock. Son has since agreed to sell far more than that of his holdings, suggesting he could use the money for a big deal or his long-debated plans to take SoftBank private.

“The stock took off for the races after speculation over a privatization,” said Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First Partners in Singapore.

Son overhauls SoftBank World

Bloomberg

Beijing

SoftBank Group is changing the lineup for its annual corporate conference this year, adding top executives from companies like Microsoft and curtailing the number of leaders from its own portfolio firms. SoftBank World, which usually takes place in July, was pushed back this year because of the coronavirus pandemic to late October. The chief executive officers of Microsoft, IBM, Adobe and Zoom Video Communications  are scheduled to participate.