SoftBank may opt for going private

Recently, SoftBank’s shares jumped as much as 10% in Tokyo, the most in about six months. SoftBank Group Corp. shares increased after the company reached a deal to sell chip designer Arm for as much as $40 billion and revived talks about taking the group private. SoftBank announced the sale of Arm to Nvidia Corp. for a combination of cash and stock. The Japanese conglomerate’s senior executives will also be revisiting a plan to buy out public shareholders, which had earlier met with internal opposition, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named as the information isn’t public.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has considered a management buyout of his company since at least 2015, when talks on financing with an overseas partner fell through. The idea of taking the company private has been fueled by a persistent gap between the company’s market valuation and the worth of its holdings, which include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The latest deliberations are at an early stage and may not lead to a transaction. Senior management within SoftBank have various viewpoints on the plan, and many veterans are against the idea.

SoftBank has been criticized recently for a strategy of using derivatives to invest in technology companies and its executives have met with investors in recent days to assure them that the bets are relatively conservative, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on Friday. Media reports revealing details of SoftBank’s derivatives bets upset investors and sparked about a $9 billion loss in market value for the company the first day of trading after the reports.