Japanese telco Softbank has announced that it has sold a 67% stake in smaller telco eAccess to 11 buyers, including Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson.
As TelecomFinance reported earlier this week, Softbank was said to be in talks to sell a majority stake in…
Japanese telco Softbank has announced that it has sold a 67% stake in smaller telco eAccess to 11 buyers, including Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson.
As TelecomFinance reported earlier this week, Softbank was said to be in talks to sell a majority stake in its newly acquired subsidiary in order to comply with anti-monopoly regulations in the country.
In an announcement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange today, the company said that its board had approved a share transfer. The 11 purchasers include French telco Alcatel-Lucent, Sweden’s Ericsson, South Korea-headquartered Samsung, Finland’s Nokia Siemens Networks and Japanese leasing company Orix Corp.
Softbank said its decision to decrease its stake was “in order for eAccess to maintain a certain degree of independence, which the company believes will facilitate the continued expansion of eAccess’ business.”
The statement added that Softbank had informed the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications back in November that it was considering reducing its voting rights in eAccess to less than one third.
“[Softbank] and eAccess believe the share transfer will have no impact on achieving the benefits expected from making eAccess a wholly-owned subsidiary as originally contemplated,” added the announcement.
Softbank completed its acquisition of smaller rival eAccess on 1 January via a share exchange, making the telco its wholly-owned subsidiary.
The majority stake sale is expected to alleviate concerns that Softbank’s 100% ownership of eAccess is infringing on regulations which allocate frequency bands fairly to mobile carriers. Under current rules, either a parent company or one of its units in which it owns more than 33% can apply for spectrum. Therefore by Softbank reducing its stake in eAccess to 33%, both telcos can acquire more frequencies in the future.
