The founder and CEO of SoftBank Group Corporation, Masayoshi Son recently announced that he is stepping down from his board position at the Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba. Announcing his decision, Son said that he’s “graduating” from his most successful investment by far.
Son’s resignation comes just months after Alibaba Co-founder Jack Ma quit from SoftBank’s board. However, none of the billionaires have signified any differences between as the reason for the departures.
Softbank had invested in Alibaba in its early days and the investment is currently worth about $600bn. Son emphasizes that Alibaba remains a crown in the company’s portfolio.
The announcement was made by Son in his annual presentation to SoftBank shareholders. He further defended his investing decisions 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.
Son began his annual presentation to investors in typical fashion, reaffirming his conviction that a global digital transformation and the advent of artificial intelligence — accelerated during the pandemic — will propel investments from TikTok-owner ByteDance Ltd. to e-commerce titan Alibaba and British chip designer Arm Ltd.
He again said the market was thus underestimating SoftBank’s potential, arguing that the Japanese giant’s shareholder value now stood at $218 billion — more than double its current market capitalization.
The rise in corporate value was driven by the growth of SoftBank’s stake is Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and following the merger of its U.S. wireless unit Sprint with T-Mobile US Inc.
SoftBank has undertaken a complex transaction to divest part of its T-Mobile stake to raise $20 billion. That brings the total from an asset sale programme, which includes monetisation of stakes in Alibaba and wireless carrier SoftBank Corp to $35 billion or 80% of the planned total, Son said.
That deal plus other recent transactions meant SoftBank has now completed 80% of its envisioned 4.5 trillion yen unloading of assets, intended to bankroll stock buybacks and slash debt. Son told shareholders he was exploring options to complete the remaining 20% but didn’t elaborate.
Commenting on stepping down from his SoftBank position, the 62-year-old businessman had previously said he will hand over management at SoftBank to a successor in his sixties. However, he now said that the plans for retirement have now been sidelined.
“I may go a little beyond that,” Son said in his annual presentation.
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