Softbank shares rose 13% on Thursday after CEO Sun Zhengyi announced a $5.5 billion share repurchase to shore up its share price, which he believed was undervalued.
Softbank said after closing on Wednesday that it would fund its largest ever repurchase of up to 600 billion yen (4.2 billion) of shares with the proceeds of its domestic telecommunications company's initial public offering in December.
The company also announced a 60% increase in third-quarter operating profit as a result of rising technology investment valuations. On Wednesday, Son gave a 90-minute speech outlining SoftBank's investment strategy and what he thought was its long-term undervaluation.
Although SoftBank currently has a market capitalization of about 9 trillion yen, it holds a net debt of 21 trillion yen when its stakes in Telecom Softbank, Saudi-backed Vision Fund and chip designer Arm Holdings are taken into account. He said.
Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a report that repurchase was "under the SoftBank stock".
Softbank's share price hit a new high in September, but fell on concerns about Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's financial relationship with Saudi Arabia after his murder.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was flat in early trading.
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