SoftBank picks 5 banks for IPO

TOKYO: SoftBank Group Corp has chosen five investment banks, including units of Nomura Holdings Inc and Goldman Sachs, as lead underwriters for the mammoth initial public offering of its mobile-phone unit, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The other institutions are Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Deutsche Bank AG and the SMBC Nikko Securities Inc unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, the source told Reuters, on condition of anonymity as the deal is not public.

Media representatives for SoftBank and the financial institutions declined to comment.Bloomberg News reported Friday that the Japanese investment and technology firm aims to sell around 3 trillion yen ($27 billion) of shares, the biggest IPO ever, listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December.

An IPO of that scale would be the biggest ever, topping the $25 billion worth of shares sold by China’s Alibaba in New York in 2014, and the $22 billion raised by Agricultural Bank of China in Hong Kong in 2010.

Goldman Sachs has long had close ties with SoftBank. Its former Asia-Pacific chairman, Mark Schwartz, sits on the board of SoftBank.