SoftBank Group invested $10bn worth of proceeds from recent asset sales in large cap stocks, the company disclosed earlier this week in a largely overlooked element of the company’s June-quarter financial report. SoftBank realized a gain of more than $600m on the trade during the quarter.
SoftBank has completed 95% of its planned 4.5 trillion yen ($42bn) asset sale program, raising $22.5bn from the sale of T-Mobile shares, $13.7bn from the forward sale of Alibaba shares, and $5.6bn from the sale of shares in SoftBank, the company’s majority owned wireless phone business. SoftBank said that to date it has repurchased 1 trillion yen—$9.4bn—of its own stock with plans to spend another 1.5 trillion yen on buybacks. The company said its net debt position decreased $14bn in the quarter.