SoftBank President Arora to buy 60 bil. yen of company shares

Nikesh Arora, president of SoftBank, has said he will buy a breathtaking Y60 billion ($US483 million) worth of shares in the Japanese telecoms and internet group, in a sign of his commitment to the company as the handpicked successor to billionaire Masayoshi Son.

Arora will acquire the SoftBank shares as a “program trade over the next 6 months”. This former Google executive is the heir apparent to SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son. However, I am extremely confident about the future of SoftBank Group and the long-term objectives that we have set out. I intend to work closely with Mr. Son to make the vision a reality. That’s what Nikesh Arora, president and COO of SoftBank Group Corp.

Expressing his delight over the decision, Son said Arora has decided to double down the partnership with him.

The big bet may also help win support from outside shareholders for some of SoftBank’s more recent corporate wagers.

Even for Arora, who spent a decade at Google and was the search giant’s highest-paid executive in 2012, the investment is – in his own words – “an enormous risk”.

Nissan Motor CEO Carlos Ghosn, one of a few expat bosses of a Japanese major, who pocketed under $10 million in the year ended March 31, 2014, was the highest paid executive in the country for the fourth year running. With market capitalization of about $73 Billion ( according to Business Insider), SoftBank has lately been expanding its overseas expansion with Arora himself at the forefront of things.

Son said in the statement he and Arora “plan to work together for many years”, adding he expects Arora to “succeed me at the appropriate time”. The last year of working together could not have gone better and it has surpassed every expectation that I had.

It has been particularly focused on making its $20 billion acquisition of the US carrier Sprint Corporation profitable which is struggling at present, largely due to intense competition from rivals like AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications.

Masayoshi also said Arora was a great business leader and a good person at heart.