Japanese investors salivating at the juicy 5.4 percent dividend yield available from the initial public offering of SoftBank Group Corp.’s telecom unit should rein in their excitement. At a firmed-up IPO price of 1,500 yen per share, SoftBank Corp. is now valued at 7.18 trillion yen ($63.8 billion). As my colleague Tim Culpan has noted, SoftBank Corp’s puny 1.6 percent improvement in net income in the last two years was boosted by a tax cut that may be temporary. But perhaps the biggest worry will be SoftBank Corp.’s links to its parent, which will still have 67 percent of the wireless unit once listed. Prepare for SoftBank Corp. to follow a similar path.

Source: Washington Post December 10, 2018 08:26 UTC