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Time of India
07-08-2025
- Business
- Time of India
SoftBank's AI investment spree to be in focus on at Q1 earnings
By Anton Bridge TOKYO: When Japan 's SoftBank Group reports earnings on Thursday, its mammoth investments in artificial intelligence companies are set to take the spotlight. Analysts and investors are keen for updates on how they will be financed, the timeline for returns to materialise and whether assets will be sold to fund the new projects. SoftBank has embarked on its biggest spending spree since the launch of its Vision Funds in 2017 and 2019. It is leading a $40 billion funding round for ChatGPT maker OpenAI. SoftBank has until the end of the year to fund its $22.5 billion portion, although the remainder has been subscribed, according to a source familiar with the matter. It is also leading the financing for the Stargate project - a $500 billion scheme to develop data centres in the United States, part of its effort to position itself as the "organiser of the industry," founder Masayoshi Son said in June. SoftBank has yet to release details on what kinds of returns its financing of the Stargate project could generate. The extent of third-party investment will determine what other financing tools, such as bank loans and debt issuance, it may have to deploy. In July, SoftBank raised $4.8 billion by selling off a portion of its holding in T-Mobile. "If other sources of capital are less supportive, SoftBank could look to asset-backed finance, which is collateralised by equity in other holdings," Macquarie analyst Paul Golding said. The Japanese conglomerate is expected to post a net profit of 127.6 billion yen ($865 million) in the April-June quarter, according to the average estimate of three analysts polled by LSEG. That would mark SoftBank's second consecutive quarter of profit and follow its first annual profit in four years when it was helped by a strong performance by its telecom holdings and higher valuations for its later-stage startups. Its results are, however, typically very volatile and difficult to estimate due to manifold investments, many of which are not listed. SoftBank's performance in exiting from investments and distributing profits has been patchy of late. The Vision Funds had made a cumulative investment loss of $475 million as of end-March. That said, 13 of 18 analysts have a "buy" or "strong buy" rating for SoftBank's stock, according to LSEG. Although there is some concern in the market that AI-related valuations have become bubbly, they continue to climb. OpenAI is in early-stage discussions about a stock sale that would allow employees to cash out and could value the company at about $500 billion, according to the source - a huge jump from its current valuation of $300 billion.
Mint
07-08-2025
- Business
- Mint
SoftBank Group posts $2.87 billion net profit in first quarter
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group logged a net profit of 421.8 billion yen ($2.87 billion) for the April-June quarter. The result compared with a net loss of 174.3 billion yen for the same period a year earlier and the 127.6 billion yen average profit from three analyst estimates compiled by LSEG. The Vision Fund investment unit posted an investment gain of 726.8 billion yen ($4.94 billion). The results mark SoftBank's second consecutive quarter of profit and follow its first annual profit in four years when it was helped by a strong performance by its telecom holdings and higher valuations for its later-stage startups. The results will be welcomed by investors as SoftBank has embarked on its biggest spending spree since the launch of its Vision Funds in 2017 and 2019, this time making mammoth investments in artificial intelligence companies. Investors and analysts are awaiting updates on how these investments will be financed, the timeline for returns to materialise and whether assets will be sold to fund the new projects. SoftBank is leading a $40 billion funding round for ChatGPT maker OpenAI. SoftBank has until the end of the year to fund its $22.5 billion portion, although the remainder has been subscribed, according to a source familiar with the matter. It is also leading the financing for the Stargate project - a $500 billion scheme to develop data centres in the United States, part of its effort to position itself as the "organiser of the industry," founder Masayoshi Son said in June. SoftBank has yet to release details on what kinds of returns its financing of the Stargate project could generate. The extent of third-party investment will determine what other financing tools, such as bank loans and debt issuance, it may have to deploy. In July, SoftBank raised $4.8 billion by selling off a portion of its holding in T-Mobile. (Reporting by Anton Bridge; Additional reporting by Krystal Hu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher Cushing)
Japan Today
29-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
Japan hits M&A record of $232 billion, driving Asia deals rebound
By Anton Bridge, Miho Uranaka and Kane Wu Japan is driving Asia's M&A rebound in 2025 with a record $232 billion worth of deals in the first half, and bankers expect the trend to sustain fueled by multi-billion dollar take-private arrangements, outbound investments and private equity activity. Management reforms to tackle chronic low valuations among Japanese firms are spurring a flurry of foreign and activist investor interest, while Japan's low interest rates - which support deals - mean the appetite for more deals remains strong, bankers say. The deals involving Japanese companies more than tripled in value in the first half, while in the same period Asia M&A value reached $650 billion, more than double the amount year-on-year, LSEG data showed. Bankers say government calls for better corporate governance, including the privatisation of listed subsidiaries, as well as outbound acquisitions by Japanese firms seeking new growth avenues will keep igniting mega deals. Moreover, Japan has been relatively insulated from global volatility despite the broader geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, helping to underpin deals momentum, they say. A cohort of Toyota Motor group companies and telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone took private listed subsidiaries in deals worth $34.6 billion and $16.5 billion respectively, among the largest transactions globally. "There are many other deals like these on the way and their number is increasing," said Kei Nitta, global head of M&A at Nomura Securities. SoftBank Group also led a new fundraising of up to $40 billion into ChatGPT maker OpenAI in the biggest private tech funding round in history. The long-standing trend of Japanese firms looking abroad for growth opportunities in the face of a shrinking home market has continued despite heightened uncertainty in the global economy. Japanese financial institutions, such as insurer Dai-ichi Life and Nomura Holdings, announced major deals and bankers say demand remains robust across industries. "Debates over tariffs and foreign conflicts mean that some investment decisions are taking longer than usual and some customers have become more cautious, but we consider appetite for investment itself to remain very strong," Nitta said. Japanese firms themselves have also become more attractive acquisition targets as global firms have reconsidered their supply chains and distribution of resources over the past two years, Nitta added. However, there are some hurdles that could slow dealmaking in Japan. Uncertainty around the global economic outlook has made assessing companies' future prospects more difficult, leading to a disconnect in valuation expectations between buyers and sellers. This has caused an increasing number of deals to fail, said Atsushi Tatsuguchi, head of the M&A advisory group at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. As part of the corporate reform drive, firms are under rising pressure to offload non-core business units, with private equity funds increasingly the destination for the hived off parts. Convenience store operator Seven & I Holdings – itself the target of a buyout bid from Canadian rival Alimentation Couche-Tard – sold off a bundle of its superstores and other peripheral business units to Bain Capital for some $5.5 billion in March. "Carve-outs of operating companies' non-core assets will continue to be a trend in the near term," said senior deputy head of M&A advisory at SMBC Nikko Securities, Yusuke Ishimaru. Bankers say there is a strong pipeline of potential deals involving private equity firms. Potential deals to be announced in the second half include an acquisition of Japanese cybersecurity firm Trend Micro which has a market value of 1.32 trillion yen ($8.54 billion). Bidders included Bain Capital and EQT, Reuters reported earlier this year. "Private equity funds are also seen as promising buyers for taking listed companies private," Ishimaru said. © Thomson Reuters 2025
Business Insider
02-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Nomura CEO says company is committed to growth of U.S. business, Reuters says
Nomura (NMR) Holdings is committed to growing its U.S. business despite recent market volatility, Anton Bridge of Reuters reports, citing comments made by CEO Kentaro Okuda. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>>
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Markets ask how soon Nippon Steel will benefit from $15 billion bid for U.S. Steel
By Katya Golubkova and Anton Bridge TOKYO (Reuters) -Nippon Steel investors and analysts are asking if its $15-billion deal to buy U.S. Steel, backed but not yet approved by President Donald Trump, is positive for the near term, even if its hopes for strong U.S. demand materialise. Such a merger would create the world's third-largest steel producer by volume, after China's Baowu Steel Group and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, data from the World Steel Association (WorldSteel) shows. The "planned partnership" would create at least 70,000 jobs and add $14 billion to the U.S. economy via Nippon Steel's additional investments, Trump said last week. While full details of the deal remain unclear, U.S. Steel shares surged 21% on the news and Nippon Steel gained 7%. Nippon Steel did not exclude issuing new shares to fund the takeover, Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori said in December, after having already raised some funds through hybrid financing and asset sales. "If the new equity is issued, investors will rightly be asking: is this the best possible use of capital at this moment?" said Fiona Deutsch, lead analyst with Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR). The company had pledged an investment of up to $4 billion in a new coal-dependent blast furnace, said Deutsch, whose climate activist group holds less than 1% of Nippon Steel's shares. That plan, part of a wider investment commitment of $14 billion, comes "at a time when the global steel sector is shifting towards low-carbon alternatives", she added. Nippon Steel shares were up 1% by 0405 GMT, outperforming the overall Nikkei index which was up 1.6%. Unveiling the deal in late 2023, Nippon Steel offered $55 for each share of U.S. Steel, for a premium of 40% at the time. U.S. Steel shares closed at $53.3 on Wednesday. "There's a lot of immediate negative effects, even though the long-term effect may be positive," said an adviser to institutional investors on strategies for Nippon Steel. He cited the dilution as a further deterrent, besides the high offer price and additional investment commitments. Nippon Steel did not reply to a Reuters request for a comment. "In the short term, there are concerns about financing," said Shinichiro Ozaki, a senior analyst at Daiwa Securities. "Given that U.S. Steel reported a net loss for the January-March period, the stock market may worry about the limited likelihood of a short-term return on the investment." STRATEGIC GOALS Projections that domestic demand will stay weak have pushed Nippon Steel, which is Japan's largest steelmaker, and others to look to overseas expansion, while they consider shutting some blast furnaces at home. U.S. Steel is key to Nippon Steel's goal to raise its global output capacity to more than 100 million metric tons a year from 63 million tons now, as it aims to benefit from demand in India and the United States. Both markets are relatively protected from vast steel exports from China, the world's top producer, thanks to protectionist measures they have adopted, such as tariffs. In March, Nippon Steel President Tadashi Imai, who also chairs the Japan Iron and Steel Federation, warned that U.S. auto and steel tariffs could cut several million tons from Japan's annual steel output to below 80 million tons. Ownership of U.S. Steel could provide a shield for Nippon Steel from the impact of tariffs on non-U.S. operations, said Alistair Ramsay, vice president of Rystad Energy. "Should underlying demand in the United States begin and continue to recover, then we would expect the investment to pay off in good time, regardless of the duration of tariffs," he said. "But that's a big if, given how far the U.S. market has shrunk over the past few years, never mind this century." U.S. steel consumption is expected to rise by 2% this year after a drop of 1.5% in 2024, according to WorldSteel. This month, Nippon Steel said it would cut its dividend for the current fiscal year to 120 yen a share, off last year's 160 yen, and its lowest since 2021, amid a projected fall in profits, but the overall payout ratio would stay at 30%. "For the investor who cares about the share price today, you wouldn't be looking at factoring in synergies based on what you think might happen in two to three years," said the adviser, who sought anonymity as the matter is a sensitive one. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
