Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is negotiating a deal to sell its asset management unit Fortress after it posted an overall loss of $23.4bn in Q2 2022, Bloomberg has reported.
The bank’s chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son has already begun discussions to sell the asset manager, which was acquired by the company in 2017 for $3.3bn.
However, SoftBank was compelled to withdraw its daily control on Fortress Investment Group in order to secure approval for the deal from the US regulators.
In November last year, Bloomberg reported that SoftBank’s plan to sell Fortress partly because it was unable to combine the business with its own.
Mitsushige Akino, a senior executive officer from Ichiyoshi Asset Management, a separate entity in Tokyo was quoted by the news agency as saying: “They have to sell what they can, and invest only in the good ones.
“It’s clear they’re still facing headwinds.”
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By GlobalDataSelling Fortress is also expected to help the bank to reduce its expenditure, reported Nikkei.
In addition, SoftBank has revealed its plan to initiate massive cost cutting measures at the company and its Vision Fund investment unit after posting the latest loss in revenue.
Addressing a press conference, Son said: “The loss is the biggest in our corporate history and we take it very seriously.
“We have to resort to big cost-cutting efforts at Vision Fund. The cost cutting efforts will have to include a reduction in head count – something I’ve made up my mind to do.”
