Elliott Management, a fund manager known for shareholder activism, has amassed a more than $2.5 billion stake in SoftBank (SFTBY) as part of a broader push for changes at the Japanese conglomerate.
According to the WSJ, Elliott Management has met with various high-ranking officials at SoftBank, including founder and CEO Masayoshi Son. The fund manager is advocating for changes to SoftBank’s corporate governance that it believes will increase the conglomerate’s value. Elliott Management’s $2.5 billion investment amounts to approximately 3% of SoftBank’s market value.
The proposed changes include greater transparency and better management of investment decisions at SoftBank’s Vision Fund. The $100 billion mega-fund fell under the microscope last year for its role in WeWork’s IPO implosion. SoftBank had invested billions into WeWork, among other capital-intensive but unprofitable firms.
At a November news conference, Son acknowledged that his “investment judgment was poor” in pouring billions into the troubled real estate startup, which is now worth a fraction of its peak private market valuation of $47 billion.
Elliott Management also pushed SoftBank to buy back between $10 billion and $20 billion in shares to narrow a gap between Softbank’s market value and the value of its stakes in portfolio companies, the WSJ reported.
