Internet and telecom conglomerate Softbank Corp. said Wednesday its group has ended its capital ties with SBI Holdings Inc., the holding company of the SBI Group firms, with the sale of its remaining 19.2 percent stake in SBI Holdings to Goldman Sachs Japan Ltd.
Softbank did not disclose the sale price of the 2.13 million shares.
The deal came a day after the Softbank group sold 1.11 million shares in SBI Holdings for 50 billion yen, slashing its stake from 26.7 percent to 19.2 percent.
SBI Holdings, the parent of SBI E*Trade Securities Co., bought back most of the discharged shares.
Softbank officials said some of the proceeds will be used to improve its mobile phone service business, acquired from Vodafone K.K., formerly the Japanese arm of Britain's Vodafone Group PLC.
Softbank wants to catch up with its two rivals in the Japanese mobile services market -- NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. -- via its enhanced mobile operations, the officials said.
In January 2005, SBI Holdings was removed from the group of Softbank subsidiaries whose financial results are consolidated with Softbank's figures.
But an SBI Holdings official said the company will continue some tieups with the Softbank group, including the provision of securities-related information to a financial services Web site of Yahoo Japan Corp., a Softbank Group firm.
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