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

To: sunny who wrote (55)	4/1/1999 10:29:00 AM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6018

Only way to figure out 9984's shares in publicly listed ventures is to dig into the "major shareholder" holdings section of these companies' annual report. Easier but lazy way is ... The following is a summary of a Merrill Lynch reported dated February 19th, 1999: Softbank Net Asset Value Soft Bank Corporation (10 x EBITDA) 70 bil Yen Kingston (10 x EBITDA) 102 bil Yen Less debt 120 bil Yen ---------------------------------- ---------------- Value of SBC + Kingston 52 bil Yen 72% of Ziff Davis 152 bil Yen assume 50% tax on gains ¡ 50% of latent gains on listed cos. 576 bil Yen 50% of latent gains of unlisted cos. 72 bil Yen ---------------------------------- ---------------- Total NAV 852 bil Yen NAV per share 8,193 Yen/shr NAV per share (w/o gain tax) 14,429 Yen/shr Softbank closed noon Tokyo at 13250 Yen today. So, we are close to Net Asset Value; doesn't mean much, as companies should trade higher then NAV, funds should trade at or below NAV. Softbank does add value to its portfolio companies, and it could eventually end up being the "portal" to Asia-bound US companies in internet and media businesses (not to mention finance, other services etc etc companies). Softbank recently sold 3 million Yahoo shares for US$ 410 million and realized a gain of US$ 390 million. No capital gains tax was incurred in the transaction as 9984 did some accounting offset with cap loss generated by Ziff Davis. 9984 is therefore diversifying away some of its risk in Yahoo! (behaving as a money manager should). There is an additional risk to investing in 9984,besides stock market risk. Foreign exchange risk ... Yen may go to Yen 160-180 to the US$ if Japan succeeds in reviving its economy by the current printing of money and lowering of interest rate. The underlying NAV of US$ denominated shares may not be immediately reflected in an increasing Yen share price for 9984. But, if not, then a good buying opportunity for the believer.