BBG: SoftBank quietly sells another $2.2bn of its Alibaba stake

BLOOMBERG reports:

SoftBank Group Corp. quietly sold an additional $2.2 billion of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as part of the Japanese conglomerate’s fund-raising effort to pay down debt and buy back its own shares.

The deal, which includes a collar contract and call spread, is expected to be settled between May 2024 and June 2024. The details were disclosed on page 276 of SoftBank’s year-end financial filing released on June 25, but have not been previously reported. A SoftBank Group spokesman confirmed the details of the sale.

This step is the latest in an unwinding of a relationship between the two companies that spans two decades. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son was an early backer of Jack Ma’s Alibaba and the Chinese e-commerce giant remains his most successful investment by far. In early 2000, Son invested $20 million into the then-unknown web portal connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers, a stake that is now worth more than $150 billion. Son and Ma stepped down from each other’s boards last month.

The deal brings the total of Alibaba stock sold by the Tokyo-based company this year to $13.7 billion. SoftBank in May said that it entered into several prepaid forward contracts with banks in April and May using Alibaba shares to procure a total of $11.5 billion.

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