insiderblmLONDON – Shares of SoftBank climbed by as much as 7% on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that the Japanese tech fund is considering going private.
The company’s share price rose from 7,070 Japanese yen ($67.91) at the start of trading, to 7,543 yen at 1:10 p.m. local time on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, according to Reuters data. It closed up by around 5.6% for the session.
According to the Bloomberg report, SoftBank is debating a new strategy to go private. The strategy involves gradually buying back outstanding shares until founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son has a big enough stake to squeeze out the remaining investors.
SoftBank did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. The SoftBank share surge occurred in the hours immediately after Bloomberg’s report.
At the time of writing, SoftBank’s market value stood at 15.65 trillion yen, or around $150 billion.
