I mentioned in my portfolio half year review that I had taken a new position in Softbank and here is the full thesis. Softbank (TKS:9984) (ASE:SFT) is a Japanese telecoms company and is one of the largest in the world. Investors may know the company because of its 36.3% holding in Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and 80% ownership of US telecoms company Sprint. The investment thesis for Softbank is relatively straight-forward. It currently owns a stake in Alibaba worth ¥9.6tn, yet its market cap is only ¥8.8tn. In addition to the Alibaba stake however, you get an 80% stake in Sprint, a 43% stake in Yahoo Japan, and operating businesses with net income of ¥720m per year.
