Elliott rebuilds stake in SoftBank and pushes for $15 bln buyback, FT reports (updated)

Dai Nippon Printing Co

05/06/2024 07:27

(Adds details and background paragraph 2 onwards)
       June 5 (Reuters) - Elliott Management has rebuilt a
stake worth more than $2 billion in SoftBank Group  9984.T  and
is pushing the Japanese technology investor to launch a $15
billion share buyback, the Financial Times reported on
Wednesday.
    The activist investor has engaged directly with Softbank's
senior management over the past two to three months, the report
said, citing people familiar with the matter.
        Elliot believes a share buyback would deliver an
immediate boost to the share price and act as a sign of SoftBank
CEO Masayoshi Son's confidence in his strategy, FT said.
  
        In 2020, Elliott had 
    built
     a $3 billion stake in Softbank to push for a $20 billion
buyback of its stock. It 
    sold off
     its stake in 2022 after the Japanese conglomerate revealed
plans to buy back about 15% of its shares for about 1 trillion
yen ($6.42 billion), according to FT.
  
        Elliott's stake in Softbank builds on its moves to buy
stakes in other Japanese firms like Toshiba Corp, Sumitomo Corp
 8053.T  and Dai Nippon Printing 7912.T .
        Softbank declined to comment on the FT report. Elliott
did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. 
  
        Softbank's share price rose to above 9,500 yen, its
highest in three years.
  
    ($1 = 155.6500 yen)
  

 (Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Varun H K and Sohini
Goswami)
 ((Kanjyik.Ghosh@thomsonreuters.com;))