Just over a year ago, SoftBank was struggling to raise a second huge tech fund. Right now, the Japanese investment group will have no problems selling ¥405bn ($3.7bn) of modestly rated bonds at rates that are low by global standards. The pandemic-induced tech boom has boosted SoftBank’s equity investment collateral. Besides, Japanese retail investors trust SoftBank as the business behind a familiar mobile phone operator and a top baseball team.
You might gripe that the group’s change in fortunes is the result of an asset bubble that has temporarily validated risky investments in the likes of Coupang. This helped SoftBank to a record quarterly profit. Few fans of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks would recognise the Korean ecommerce group, which recently floated in New York via a blank cheque company.
A more charitable view is that SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son has the salesperson’s knack for appealing to multiple constituencies: tech entrepreneurs, Gulf royalty or Japanese pensioners.