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Technology Stocks : Softbank Group Corp -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edwin S. Fujinaka who wrote (5508)	9/4/2000 1:23:10 AM
From: bluedarter2	Respond to of 6018

Dear Edwin & Jay, Just back, and don't know if previously posted, but re your Lucent concerns -- you might both be interested in a report "From Dial-Tone to Data-Tone" at: epoch.com (Also a report on USStarcom's prospects at same site.) The reports at this site are LONG (and probably somewhat self-serving), but seem well enough researched and written to justify reading. (My Barron's delivery delayed to Tuesday, per postcard from Barron's citing upgrade delays at Orlando publishing plant, and no time now to catch up online. Sleepy...) Best to both of you, Becky B. epoch.com

To: Edwin S. Fujinaka who wrote (5508)	9/4/2000 3:49:25 AM
From: Yamakita	Respond to of 6018

Monday September 4 1:24 AM ET Softbank's NCB Deal Set to Create 'Blue Sky' Bank TOKYO (Reuters) - State-controlled Nippon Credit Bank (NCB) was set to win formal shareholder approval for its sale to investors led by Internet investor Softbank Corp on Monday and close a chapter in Japan's decade-long asset bubble debacle. The reborn bank, to be renamed Aozora, or ``blue sky'' Bank, will be thrust into a new banking era. Masayoshi Son, Softbank's President and luminary of Japan's Internet revolution, said at the weekend that the new bank would concentrate its business on lending to small businesses and start-ups and expand into Internet banking. ``Financial services are very easy to put on the Internet, there are no physical goods to move around,'' Son said on national television. An NCB spokeswoman said final details were set to be announced at 4:30 p.m. (0730 GMT). Aozora Bank's new mandate is a departure from its ``old economy'' roots, when it was instrumental in rebuilding the nation's economic might by putting government-directed capital into growth industries in the aftermath of World War Two. The bank came under state control in December 1998 after collapsing under the weight of bad loans made during the asset price bubble a decade ago. Aozora Bank will launch with 8.2 trillion yen ($77.54 billion) in total assets and be led by former central bank executive Tadayo Honma. On Friday, the Softbank-led consortium completed payment of some 110 billion yen for NCB. In a nominal endorsement of the new bank, Moody's Investor service raised its bank financial strength rating to 'E plus' from 'E', citing NCB's improved capital position, but left its sub-investment grade ratings on its long- and short-term credit unchanged and cautioned that management plans remained unclear. Moody's defines an E-rated bank as having ``weak intrinsic financial strength.'' Softbank gets 48.88 percent of NCB, and its partners, leasing firm Orix Corp and non-life insurance giant Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co, each own 14.99 percent. To make the bank more palatable to investors, the government injected it with 3.2 trillion yen in public funds to balance its books and agreed to buy back NCB loans that fall in value by 20 percent or more in a three-year period. That's going to put pressure on the bank to keep its loan books clean, a task that may clash with lending to risky Internet startups. There's also public concern that Softbank may use NCB as a vehicle to pump money into burgeoning dot.coms in which it invests, although Son flatly denied that possibility. ``That is something that would not happen,'' Son said, ``If anything, I would expect them (Aozora) to be more stringent.'' Analysts pointed out, however, that it was hard to see why Softbank took the top stake in the new bank if it could not use NCB as a vehicle for building its Internet empire. What many expect is that Softbank could still enjoy lofty capital gains from its stake in case the bank again goes public in four to five years as planned.