SoftBank seeks to raise US$4.9 billion in T-Mobile share sale

[NEW YORK] SoftBank Group is seeking to raise as much as US$4.9 billion in an unregistered overnight block sale of T-Mobile US shares, according to terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News.

The Japanese technology giant is offering 21.5 million shares for US$224 to US$228 each, the terms show. The offering represents a discount of as much as 3 per cent to T-Mobile US’s on Monday (Jun 16) closing price of US$230.99 per share, according to Bloomberg calculations.

T-Mobile shares fell 3.5 per cent to US$222.99 each as at 6.56 pm on Monday in New York. They have climbed 4.7 per cent in the year to date to Monday’s close. Tokyo-listed SoftBank’s shares have declined 7.5 per cent in the year to date.

The potential deal would be the biggest US share sale since Toronto-Dominion Bank sold a US$13.1 billion stake in brokerage firm Charles Schwab in February. Sales of new and existing shares in US-listed companies reached US$91.4 billion in the year to date, up from US$75.9 billion in the same period a year ago, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The stake offered represents about 1.9 per cent of T-Mobile’s outstanding shares, according to Bloomberg calculations. SoftBank owned 85.4 million shares or 7.5 per cent of T-Mobile as at Mar 31, according to its annual report.

Deutsche Telekom is T-Mobile’s largest shareholder with a 59 per cent stake, according to a Jun 12 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

SoftBank received its T-Mobile shares with the completion of the US telecom company’s US$26.5 billion acquisition of Sprint in April 2020. Later that year, SoftBank substantially reduced its stake in T-Mobile via a US$21 billion deal that helped pay for a record buyback of SoftBank’s shares.

Bank of America is working on the deal, the terms show. BLOOMBERG