By Alex Ho
Investing.com - Japan’s Softbank Group Corp. (T:9984) saw its shares jumping more than 6% on Friday in Asia after reports that hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. has built up a more than $2.5 billion stake in the company.
Elliott said in a statement that it “has engaged privately with SoftBank’s leadership and is working constructively on solutions to help SoftBank materially and sustainably reduce its discount to intrinsic value.”
The hedge fund is also pressing Softbank to liquidate some of its holdings to fund a $20 billion share buyback and governance change at the company, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Elliott believes Softbank’s current share price is being unfairly discounted because of the recent negative attention.
Softbank’s shares have fallen about 20% since last April since the implosion of office-sharing company WeWork’s public offering last year, which forced the company to write down the value of its and the Vision Fund’s stakes by $4.7 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively.