SoftBank (SFTB.Y 1.24%), the Japanese technology company, is moving ahead with its plans to shore up cash by selling assets, announcing a stake sale of its Japanese wireless holdings.
In a press release the company said it intends to sell 240 million shares of its wireless business in Japan, amounting to 5% of its holdings. Once the share sale is complete SoftBank will have a 62.1% stake in the operations.
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The move is part of the tech stock’s plans to sell $41 billion in assets to raise cash and push back from critics. SoftBank intends to sell assets over the year, using proceeds to pay down its debt. The company said in the press release the price paid for the shares will be announced once the transaction is complete. Bloomberg reported SoftBank is selling the shares for 1,306.5 to 1,320 yen.
Earlier this week The Wall Street Journal reported SoftBank was in talks to sell a portion of its T-Mobile (TMUS 1.50%) to Deutsche Telekom. It’s not clear if a deal will be inked and what size of stake SoftBank is looking to unload.
SoftBank has been facing pressure for months now after its investments in WeWork, Uber, and other bets soured. For its fiscal year ended March 31, its Vision Fund reported a loss of 1.9 trillion yen or close to $18 billion. Uber represented $5.2 billion of the loss; WeWork accounted for $4.6 billion of the losses while the rest of investments had losses of $7.5 billion.
