SFTBY - SoftBank Group Corp.
| Previous Close | 22.00 |
| Open | 21.95 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 0 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 0 |
| Day's Range | 21.25 - 22.19 |
| 52 Week Range | 15.54 - 28.04 |
| Volume | 2,274,335 |
| Avg. Volume | 929,568 |
| Market Cap | 89.228B |
| Beta (3Y Monthly) | 1.98 |
| PE Ratio (TTM) | 2.98 |
| EPS (TTM) | 7.15 |
| Earnings Date | N/A |
| Forward Dividend & Yield | 0.10 (0.45%) |
| Ex-Dividend Date | 2019-03-28 |
| 1y Target Est | N/A |
- Reuters
UPDATE 1-SoftBank-backed Oyo, known for budget stays, to rebrand Hooters hotel in Vegas
SoftBank Group Corp-backed Indian hospitality startup Oyo will rebrand Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas in a deal that a source with knowledge of the matter said was worth $135 million. Oyo said on Friday it would partner with restaurant operator Highgate, which runs the Hooters hotel in Vegas, to rebrand it Oyo Hotel and Casino. The hotel, with 657 rooms and a 35,000 square-feet casino located near the famed Las Vegas Strip, will continue to be managed by Highgate.
- Reuters
SoftBank-backed Oyo, known for budget stays, to rebrand Hooters hotel in Vegas
SoftBank Group Corp-backed Indian hospitality startup Oyo will rebrand Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas in a deal that a source with knowledge of the matter said was worth $135 million. Oyo said on Friday it would partner with restaurant operator Highgate, which runs the Hooters hotel in Vegas, to rebrand it Oyo Hotel and Casino. The hotel, with 657 rooms and a 35,000 square-feet casino located near the famed Las Vegas Strip, will continue to be managed by Highgate.
- Bloomberg
SoftBank Will Let People Invest in IPOs With Less Than $10
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Corp.’s brokerage unit plans to do something that may be a first in capital markets. It will allow individuals in Japan to participate in initial public offerings with as little as a 1,000-yen note (worth a bit less than a 10-dollar bill).One Tap BUY Co., controlled by the wireless unit of investment giant SoftBank Group Corp., is preparing to start offering such sales as early as March 2020 after obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals. This will mark the first time that investors will be able to subscribe to an IPO by investment amount rather than specified number of shares, said One Tap BUY Chief Executive Officer Masaaki Uchiyama."When you buy food or fuel your car, it’s easier to specify the amount of money you want to spend rather than the volume," Uchiyama said in an interview. "The only thing investors want to know is how much they can gain from $10."SoftBank is going up against competition from Line Corp. and Rakuten Inc. in the race to tap individuals through financial services. Line started an online brokerage with Japan’s biggest bank, Nomura Holdings Inc., this week, while Rakuten last month announced it will start lending and issuing credit cards in the United States. All three are aiming to create and expand new markets, targeting younger and less well-off investors.SoftBank owns 46% of One Tap BUY, while Mizuho Securities Co. holds 13%. Uchiyama, who joined the smartphone-based brokerage in 2016 after stints at the predecessors of SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. and Accenture Plc., became the CEO in July.One Tap BUY will seek an IPO of its own in the next three to five years, the CEO said. Ahead of that, the company plans to raise as much as 3 billion yen ($28 million) from investors by March 2020 to expand its brokerage operation, he added.”As long as we are a unit of SoftBank, we are supposed to seek to become a unicorn,” Uchiyama said.To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Takashi Amano at tamano6@bloomberg.net, ;Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Vlad SavovFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Benzinga
Indian Regulator Clears Canadian Pension Fund Stake In Delhivery
An Indian government regulator cleared the way for the investment arm of Canada's public pension fund to acquire up to 8 percent of the logistics firm Delhivery . The Competition Commission of India announced ...
- Bloomberg
SoftBank in Talks to Hire Senior Ex-Deutsche Bank Trader
(Bloomberg) -- John Pipilis, the former head of fixed-income trading at Deutsche Bank AG, is in talks to join SoftBank Group Corp.’s giant investment fund in a senior position.Pipilis’s potential role would be head of financing at SoftBank Investment Advisers, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the talks are private. SBIA manages the $100 billion Vision Fund, the world’s biggest pool of technology investments, which holds stakes in WeWork, Uber Technologies Inc. and Slack Technologies Inc.The talks may not result in Pipilis being hired, the people said. Still, the discussions not only highlight how former traders from Deutsche Bank are reconvening at SoftBank, but also how the Japanese conglomerate is increasingly using financial structuring to help manage its growing tech portfolio.Pipilis, a veteran of the German lender until leaving amid its historic overhaul earlier this year, oversaw one of the world’s biggest fixed-income trading businesses, dealing in everything from derivatives tied to corporate and sovereign debt, currencies and interest rates to junk bonds and leveraged loans.Pipilis declined to comment, as did a spokesman from SoftBank.Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing is cutting 18,000 jobs and retreating from risky trading businesses in the latest revamp of the Frankfurt-based lender, which has struggled over the years with legal and regulatory woes. The various overhauls have prompted the departures of a number of top staff.SoftBank has become home to a number of Pipilis’ former colleagues. Colin Fan, the former co-head of Deutsche Bank’s investment-banking unit, joined SoftBank in 2017, while Rajeev Misra, who built the German lender’s credit derivatives and trading business, is the Japanese company’s head of strategic finance and is in charge of the Vision Fund.Other former Deutsche Bank staff who now ply their trade at SoftBank include Akshay Naheta, Murtaza Ahmed, Munish Varma, Saleh Romeih, Faisal Rahman, Aamir Akram, and Ziyad Al Ashaikh.Unlike traditional tech investors, who buy equity stakes in startups, SoftBank has used a variety of investment strategies to fund its deals, from seeking lines of credit to using billion-dollar collar trades. Pipilis’s role may be to help the Vision Fund manage its debt, but also advise on fixed-income strategies for companies in its portfolio, one person said.\--With assistance from Sonali Basak.To contact the reporters on this story: Giles Turner in London at gturner35@bloomberg.net;Donal Griffin in London at dgriffin10@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Marion DakersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Financial Times
SoftBank-backed IoT company Uhuru to seek London IPO
The start-up develops technology that connects smart devices and their associated internet infrastructure to the cloud. Uhuru, whose business partners include British chip designer Arm Holdings, among others, mainly supplies to Japanese multinationals such as Honda, Dentsu, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Yamaha. Its technology helps customers to operate and manage internet-connected devices — from wind turbines to heavy machinery — and analyse the data flowing from them.
- TheStreet.com
[video]SoftBank to Lend Up to $20B to Employees to Invest in Second Vision Fund- Report
Japanese mobile-phone and technology conglomerate SoftBank plans to lend up to $20 billion to its employees to buy stakes in its second giant venture-capital fund.
- Financial Times
Battle over Unizo points to surge in activist investing in Japan
An investment arm of SoftBank has launched a surprise “white knight” offer for a Japanese hotel chain as investors witness a rare spate of hostile takeovers and other corporate manoeuvres once deemed taboo in the country. The friendly buyout offer of up to $1.3bn from SoftBank’s Fortress Investment Group for Unizo Holdings came after travel agency HIS launched a hostile takeover attempt of the hotel group last month. Fortress, which has invested in more than 100 hotels in Japan, has offered ¥4,000 ($38) a share for all of Unizo’s shares.
- Reuters
SoftBank plans to lend up to $20 billion to employees to invest in new fund - WSJ
Son himself may account for over half of that amount, the Journal reported, adding that executives feel that such a step will make employees more accountable as the investments of the fund can be canceled if a manager leaves or is found to have engaged in a "reckless deal". The loans are likely to have an interest rate of about 5%, the WSJ said, citing a source.
- Reuters
SoftBank plans to lend up to $20 billion to employees to invest in new fund: WSJ
Son himself may account for over half of that amount, the Journal reported, adding that executives feel that such a step will make employees more accountable as the investments of the fund can be canceled if a manager leaves or is found to have engaged in a "reckless deal". The loans are likely to have an interest rate of about 5%, the WSJ said, citing a source.
- TechCrunch
SoftBank reportedly plans to lend employees as much as $20 billion to invest in its VC fund
SoftBank revealed its plans for its second Vision Fund last month, including$38 billion from SoftBank itself, as well as commitments from Apple,Microsoft and more
- Bloomberg
SoftBank to Lend Up to $20 Billion to Employees for Fund: WSJ
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group is planning to lend up to $20 billion to its employees to buy stakes in its second giant venture-capital fund, Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.Chief Executive Masayoshi Son may account for more than half of that amount, the paper said, adding that the employee pool at $20 billion, would represent nearly a fifth of the money that SoftBank said last month it had lined up for its second Vision Fund.A Vision Fund spokesman didn’t comment to the newspaper.To view the source of this information click hereTo contact the reporter on this story: Sebastian Tong in San Francisco at stong41@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Kopit at skopit@bloomberg.net, Linus ChuaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Financial Times
SoftBank staff to put up to $15bn into new Vision Fund
SoftBank is planning to pour up to $15bn into its new technology investment fund on behalf of its own employees, topping up the contributions promised from outside investors such as Apple and Microsoft. People familiar with the matter said a large part of the employee contributions would be funded personally by Masayoshi Son, the risk-taking billionaire founder of the Japanese group. The exact size of employee participation has not been finalised but it will come on top of the $38bn SoftBank has committed to invest in its second Vision Fund, which has a headline value of $108bn but few confirmed outside investors.
- Reuters
SoftBank's Fortress emerges as white knight for hotel chain Unizo with $1.3 billion bid
Japanese hotel chain Unizo Holdings said it received a friendly buyout offer worth up to $1.3 billion from a SoftBank Group investment firm, a deal that will help it fend off a rare hostile takeover bid from travel agency H.I.S. Co. U.S.-based Fortress Investment Group will launch a tender offer from next week for all of Unizo's shares at 4,000 yen apiece ($37.68), the companies said in separate statements, trumping the 3,100 yen that H.I.S. has offered. Unizo has publicly opposed the H.I.S. bid, saying it lacked synergy and undervalued the hotel chain.
- Morningstar
My Investment Howler
In 1998, I owned three assets: 1) my 401(k) plan, to which I contributed the permitted maximum, 2) a fresh award of Morningstar stock options, with a strike price of $2.67, and 3) human capital. It was a good retirement plan. Morningstar was privately held, so my options could neither be exchanged for shares nor sold for cash.
- Financial Times
SoftBank strikes deal with Berkshire Grey warehouse robotics
SoftBank has struck a new deal with Berkshire Grey, a warehouse robotics company that aims to arm retailers to take on Amazon’s automated operations. Berkshire Grey, which is based just outside Boston, was founded in 2013 by Tom Wagner, the former chief technology officer of iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaner. Its team is staffed with alumni of Kiva Systems, the robotics company that Amazon bought in 2012 for $775m, as well as Uber, Tesla and Carnegie Mellon University.
- Reuters
SoftBank convertible note helped cut WeWork losses
Investors may be stumped by some of the finances WeWork owner We Company unveiled this week in its filing to go public, in particular a $486 million gain on a convertible note that made losses at the coworking firm appear a lot smaller. The gain reduced the pace of expanding losses in the first six months of this year to a 25% increase from a year earlier rather than almost doubling it. The IPO will be a key test of investor appetite for fast-growing, money-losing startups.
- InvestorPlace
WeWork Stock’s Numbers Just Don’t Work for its Coming IPO
WeWork's parent company The We Company has filed on behalf of its shared workspace brand to go public under the ticker symbol WE, but hasn't yet chosen which exchange to list it on. Nevertheless, the $1 billion raise has both Wall Street and tech reporters excited, if for different reasons.Source: Mitch Hutchinson / Shutterstock.com Wall Street hopes the "space as a service" business can re-ignite an IPO market disappointed by the performance of Uber (NYSE:UBER), which still sells for less than its initial $42 trade. But, many tech reporters argue that WeWork isn't a tech company at all.WeWork's S-1 describes a way to put workers into high-class space for less than half the cost of a standard lease. The idea is to aggregate office demand from large employers. It bases a $47 billion valuation on losses of $690 million over the last six months, evidence of just what a ground-floor opportunity this is.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips The Magic of LeverageThe most interesting chart in the S-1 compares where WeWork is today against where it hopes to be 9-18 months from now. The money is currently in finding space and building it out, but the money will soon come from selling monthly memberships to fill the space. It claims to have 528 co-working spaces in 111 cities across 29 countries. Half of WeWork's 527,000 members reside outside of the United States. * 10 Stocks Under $5 to Buy for Fall Its rival IWG (OTCMKTS:IWG), formerly known as Regus, rents small offices in suburban locations. WeWork on the other hand is splashing its name all over downtown office towers. IWG made a profit last year on revenue of $3.4 billion and has a market cap of just under $3.7 billion. Last year, WeWork lost $1.9 billion on revenue of $1.8 billion and claims a $47 billion market cap.How is this possible? Some of it is due to its backers, like Benchmark Capital, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), and the SoftBank (OTCMKTS:SFTBY) Vision Fund. Part of it is due to global ambitions, its use of expensive real estate and its seeking of high-profile corporate lessors. Part of it is just hype.Bloomberg Opinion's Shira Ovide, who writes about technology, tweeted that WeWork's IPO filing is "… THE MOST BANANAS THING I HAVE EVER READ." She also writes that WeWork is "the most magical unicorn" to ever come to market. WeWork vs. UberUnlike Uber, which developed a scaled market before coming public, The We Company is coming public ahead of its key growth period. In addition to its small equity raise, the company is also pursuing an asset-backed loan of $6 billion. Should the stock hold its IPO price -- and the limited float gives it a good chance of that -- its backers can mark nearly 150 million pre-IPO shares to market and clear enormous paper profits.WeWork is also playing the dual-share game to the hilt. IPO investors will get shares with one vote each. Class B and Class C shareholders, like founder Adam Neumann, get 20 votes per share. The Bottom Line on WeWork StockUber is an example of a 2010s' unicorn. It went public after creating its market as a scaled, if money-losing company. WeWork is more like a 1990s' Internet IPO, with more zeroes attached to it. Public investors are getting in earlier in the business' growth process, at least according to the prospectus.But the critics are right. WeWork is not a tech company. A chart in its S-1 shows Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) using We services, space and products to cut the costs of growth.But what they're doing is renting contingent space, only some of which they'll use. Maybe The We Company is just a corporate real estate version of LA Fitness (OTCMKTS:LFSA).Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the environmental story, Bridget O'Flynn and the Bear, available at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at danablankenhorn@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @danablankenhorn. As of this writing he owned shares in CSCO and JPM. More From InvestorPlace * 2 Toxic Pot Stocks You Should Avoid * 10 Stocks Under $5 to Buy for Fall * 5 Stocks to Avoid Amid the Ongoing Trade War * 7 5G Stocks to Buy Now for the Future The post WeWork Stock's Numbers Just Don't Work for its Coming IPO appeared first on InvestorPlace.
- Reuters
Vision Fund makes $110 million bet on renewable energy storage
Softbank Group's Vision Fund has made its first foray into energy storage technology with a $110 million investment in Switzerland-based Energy Vault. While many countries are keen to use renewable energy as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions in the fight against climate change, the challenge has been to find a way to store it for later use, particularly overnight or when demand surges. Inspired by the physics and mechanical engineering used in hydro plants, Energy Vault says its technology enables renewable energy to be stored in 35-ton bricks and delivered as baseload power for less than the cost of fossil fuels at any hour of the day.
- Bloomberg
Softbank Fund Makes Energy-Storage Bet With an Unusual Battery
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp.’s massive Vision Fund is making its first-ever energy storage bet -- and it’s on a rather unconventional type of battery.The fund, created by Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group Corp., is investing $110 million in Energy Vault, a Swiss startup that’s using cranes and concrete to store energy. An electric crane hoists up blocks of concrete and stacks them into a tower when power is plentiful. When power is needed, it uses gravity to take the structure apart brick by brick. The weight of the descending blocks converts kinetic energy into electricity.The startup faces stiff competition. Huge lithium-ion batteries have emerged as the storage of choice for utilities looking to deal with short-term fluctuations on their grids. The costs of those have plunged 85% since 2010. Entrepreneurs have long pitched alternatives that can hold more energy and supply for longer -- including ones that compress and liquify air and split and store hydrogen, but none have taken off the way lithium-ion has.Softbank’s $100 billion Vision Fund is betting on the need for more affordable and bigger storage systems to expand the use of renewable power and wean the world off fossil fuels. Even as the price of wind and solar plummets, they remain intermittent, supplying electricity to the grid at some times and not others. Unlocking a cheap way to bottle up clean power and dispatch it at will could change everything.Click here for a video explaining how Energy Vault’s system works.Energy Vault uses the same principle that’s long been employed by pumped-hydro storage dams, which use huge reservoirs and gravity to store energy and generate power. SoftBank is convinced the tower concept can scale quickly, with the systems installed next to existing solar power plants or wind farms.“The minute you have one solar power plant with these towers up and running, we think the scalability goes through the roof,” Akshay Naheta, managing partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, said in an interview.He estimates the system can be deployed for 15% of the price of a similarly-sized lithium-ion battery installation. SoftBank itself will become one of Energy Vault’s customers and is installing one of the systems at an undisclosed location, Naheta said. Energy Vault also is building a demonstration plant in Italy and a plant for India’s Tata Power Company Ltd.Robert Piconi, Energy Vault’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said the technology will allow wind and solar facilities to supply electricity to the grid 24 hours per day, undercutting the costs of fossil fuel plants. Grid-scale lithium-ion battery packs, in contrast, typically deliver power for just four hours.“We’re solving a problem that, today, there’s just not a lot of answers for,” Piconi said.One advantage is that Energy Vault’s technology can be installed almost anywhere, unlike pumped-hydro systems that need at least two massive reservoirs at different elevations to work. That said, Piconi does not expect Energy Vault’s concrete towers to sprout in urban centers, where the aesthetics may not be appreciated.“Obviously, this is not something that’s going to fit in the middle of a city,” he said.To contact the reporter on this story: David R. Baker in San Francisco at dbaker116@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Joe Ryan, Reg GaleFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
SoftBank-backed Oyo to invest $335 million in holiday rental's Europe push
Indian hotel start-up Oyo said on Wednesday it will invest 300 million euros ($335.28 million) in its vacation home business, to expand its footprint in Europe. Oyo acquired Amsterdam-based holiday rental company @Leisure in May, after which the SoftBank-backed hospitality chain re-christened it Oyo Vacation Homes. The business now owns over 125,000 homes in more than 80 countries, Oyo said in an emailed statement.
- Benzinga
What We Know About WeWork's IPO Filing
The We Company, formally known as WeWork , was founded in 2010 with a core mission of creating a world where "people work to make a life, not just a living." On Wednesday, the company released ...
- TechCrunch
WeWork reveals IPO filing
WeWork, now known as The We Company, released its IPO prospectus Wednesdaymorning months after filing confidentially to go public
- Financial Times
SoftBank to invest $110m in brick tower energy storage start-up
SoftBank Vision Fund will invest $110m into an energy storage start-up, Energy Vault, that plans to build huge brick towers that can store energy, marking the Vision Fund’s first foray into the fast-growing storage sector. The Lugano-based start-up said it would use the funding to pursue a rapid global deployment strategy, simultaneously building commercial-scale projects on four continents.
