An analyst report speculated that the Japanese tech giant Softbank’s decision to sell assets will not affect the eCommerce company Coupang.
On March 24, SK Securities released a report which viewed that Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank will continue to invest in Coupang, implying that Softbank’s asset sales would not affect Coupang.
“Coupang will be launching Coupang Fulfillment Service which could help the company turn a profit ahead of going public,” SK Securities analyst Yoo Seung-woo said. “Coupang’s value can only go up after Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son and Naver Global Investment Officer Lee Hae-jin joined hands last year.”
Japanese media recently reported that Softbank is gearing up to sell assets to raise 4.5 trillion yen (KRW 51.7 trillion). Softbank Group plans to buy back shares and reduce debt by liquidating assets in the coming year. It is reported that the group plans to buy back 2 trillion yen (KRW 23T) worth of its own shares and use the rest to cut its debt.
Now market insiders are seeing that Softbank-funded companies could be looking at possible bankruptcy.
“One cannot rule out the possibility of Vision Fund selling Coupang shares, but Coupang has been showing stable growth despite effects from the COVID-19 outbreak. Coupang’s February transaction amount data shows it reached KRW 1.6T this month, the largest record for the company,” Yoo further explained.
“Son’s Softbank may be shaken but that is unlikely to have any effect on Coupang attracting additional investments,” Yoo added.