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Anonymous ID: 13ff76 May 3, 2019, 11:51 a.m. No.6404181   🗄️.is 🔗kun

SoftBank mulls IPO of $100 billion Vision Fund: source

 

(Reuters) - Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp is considering an initial public offering of its $100 billion Vision Fund, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

 

The fund was set up in 2017 and has become the world’s largest technology investment fund. Its investments include ride-hailing pioneer Uber, chip designer ARM and shared workspace firm WeWork.

 

The company has publicly stated it plans to set up a second investment fund. The senior banking source said Softbank was now talking to banks about helping it raise money, confirming an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal.

 

Softbank has spoken to half a dozen banks over the last month about a potential listing of the Vision Fund but has yet to start a formal process, the source said, adding he was not expecting such a process in the near term.

 

“They asked banks questions on how they could possibly do it. It is still very much in exploration mode,” the source said, adding that Softbank had been possibly given the idea by fellow tech investor Naspers, which plans to list some of its assets.

 

“The big difference is that the biggest asset in the Naspers portfolio is Tencent, which is listed, whereas the portfolio of the Vision Fund is all private,” the source said.

 

China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd is a social media and gaming company listed in Hong Kong.

 

A spokesman for Softbank declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

 

SoftBank is also in talks with Oman for an investment in the fund, which has raised nearly all of its funding so far from Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, according to the WSJ report.

 

Oman was not immediately available for a comment when contacted by Reuters, nor was there an immediate response from the Japanese conglomerate.

 

SoftBank is seeking to raise new funds for “informal deals” chief executive officer Masayoshi Son negotiated in China for Vision Fund, one of the people told WSJ.

 

The fund is also planning to double its staff over the next 18 months to keep up with the pace of deal making by SoftBank, the company’s top deputies reportedly said at a conference in Los Angeles this week.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-softbank-ipo-visionfund/softbank-mulls-ipo-of-100-billion-vision-fund-source-idUSKCN1S910W

Anonymous ID: 13ff76 May 3, 2019, 12:03 p.m. No.6404288   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4339

Whistleblower Sues SEC For Dragging Its Feet On Reward Payout

 

A whistle-blower in an FCPA case involving Teva Pharmaceuticals is now taking the SEC to federal court, claiming that the agency is taking too long to grant him a reward, according to the WSJ. The tipster filed a petition on Monday asking the court to compel the agency to make a preliminary decision within 60 days.

 

According to the petition, it has now been 2 years since the tipster applied for compensation from the SEC - a time period the whistleblower's lawyers claim is "unreasonable".

 

The amount of time it takes the SEC to pay out on whistleblower awards has been a growing concern among those who offer tips. Often, the SEC takes around 2 years to make a determination and awards can sometimes amount to several million dollars for large cases.

 

Between 2014 and 2017, the agency's average was "more than two years" to make a determination, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. This is twice as long as it took the agency in 2012 and 2013, while the program was still in its infancy. Suing the SEC to compel for an award isn't something new: another tipster did the same in 2015 but the case was dismissed within 60 days after the SEC ultimately made a decision. In that respect, the strategy worked.

Last year, the SEC took in 5,282 whistleblower tips, an increase of 18% from a year earlier. It's also about twice the number received in 2012, according to a report the SEC recently made to congress. There has been "a flood of requests for awards" over the last few years.

 

Under law, tipsters are entitled to between 10% and 30% of the monetary penalties paid by companies as a result of SEC enforcement actions. As it relates to this case, Teva wound up paying $519 million in 2016 to settle charges that it violated FCPA laws in Mexico, Ukraine and Russia.

 

Sean McKessy, a lawyer at Phillips & Cohen LLP, who previously served as chief of the SEC’s whistleblower office says that suing the agency may not be the best idea: "The agency often faces factors outside of its control that can delay the decisions it makes on awards. In some cases, the SEC has to make a determination on several applications for a single award."

He continued: “If you’re going to blow up a relationship when you know you’re going to need some help from that entity in the future, it doesn’t make sense to me.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-01/whistleblower-sues-sec-dragging-its-feet-reward-payout