SoftBank Group tumbled below the value of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding amid growing concerns about the Japanese company’s other assets, including struggling US wireless carrier Sprint Corp.  SoftBank’s market capitalisation stood at ¥5.89tn ($50bn) yesterday after its stock rebounded 8% after a four-day losing streak triggered by rising pessimism about Sprint’s ability to pay down debt. That still lags the $56bn that its stake in Alibaba is worth, according to its own website. Billionaire Masayoshi Son has struggled to turn around Sprint since buying a controlling stake in 2013 for SoftBank’s biggest acquisition ever. The wireless operator lost its place as the third-largest US carrier to T-Mobile US Inc and its stock this week fell to the lowest level in more than two years.
Its bonds led declines among junk-rated debt on Wednesday.
“It’s symbolic because it tells you that investors feel SoftBank has been destroying value,” said Amir Anvarzadeh, a manager of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc in Singapore. “Son’s pride has been another major issue, which pushed him to where he is now.”
In 2013, SoftBank paid $22bn for a controlling stake Sprint before later acquiring more stock. Its investment in the Overland Park, Kansas-based carrier is now worth about $8.2bn, according to its website.
At the time of the initial deal, Son touted the potential role for Sprint as he pursued his 300-year plan for SoftBank and goal of building an Internet empire unrivalled in “profit, cash flow and market value.”  Instead losses at Sprint have mounted and customers have fled while SoftBank has found itself saddled with about $100bn of debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
SoftBank’s market value has dropped by about ¥1.5tn this year and the company has said it may book a charge of as much as $1.2bn related to the Sprint deal when it reports earnings next month. Shares of SoftBank closed yesterday 8% higher at ¥4,903 in Tokyo, curbing this week’s rout to roughly 12%.
“SoftBank’s growth potential is below Alibaba’s and its other businesses are looking relatively weak,” said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo. “Son said a V-shaped recovery is unlikely for Sprint, so that will weigh on SoftBank’s value for a while.” Moody’s Investors Service lowered Sprint’s credit rating in September to B3 from B1, or six levels below investment grade, citing “brutal competition” in the US wireless industry that will pressure even the strongest operators. The ratings firm also cast doubt on the wireless company’s ability to refinance more than $12bn of debt coming due in the next five years without additional support from its majority shareholder – SoftBank Group.
Sprint’s $1.5bn of 7% bonds due 2020 plunged this week to their lowest since issuance in August 2012. They climbed 3 cents to 63.75 cents in New York on Thursday, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
SoftBank lists the value of holdings in nine other public companies on its website, including Sprint and Yahoo Japan Corp. The company calculated the total market value of those holdings as more than ¥8tn.