SoftBank Group International’s Alok Sama is stepping down from his position as the firm’s president and chief financial officer after a five-year stint, The Times of India reported, citing two persons in the know.
Sama will continue as a senior adviser to SoftBank and will work with the firm on potential future deals, a person close to the development told ToI.
He may also consider opportunities in investment management and advisory and distressed assets, the person added.
According to ToI, the Masayoshi Son-led firm was investigating Sama along with its former chief operating officer Nikesh Arora last year, who were both targets of ‘unsubstantiated attacks.’
Though not part of the $100-billion Vision Fund, Sama has overseen some top deals at SoftBank, including the Alibaba partial exit, the Supercell-Tencent transaction, the $59-billion merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, which he led, the $34-billion acquisition of British semiconductor firm ARM Holdings and restructuring SoftBank’s holding in Yahoo! Japan among many others, his LinkedIn profile states.
Despite resigning from SoftBank, he will continue to be director in its portfolio companies like renewable firm SB Energy and online personal finance firm SoFi, the report added.
Sama was previously the senior managing director at investment bank Morgan Stanley. His experience includes M&A advisory, IPOs, restructuring and financing transactions for clients in North America, Europe and Asia. He is also the co-founder of Baer Capital Partners, an alternative asset management firm focused on India, in partnership with the Baer family and Dubai Holdings, his LinkedIn profile states.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and private equity firm KKR are likely to sell their stakes worth $500 million (Rs 3,472 crore) in homegrown mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp, a report in The Economic Times stated, citing multiple people privy to the development.
The two investors will get partial profits on the investment and will receive 14% returns from the transaction based on HDFC’s closing price of Rs 1,967.30 on the BSE on Friday, the ET report said.
In January 2018, KKR and GIC mopped up about $1.75 billion (Rs 11,104 crore) from HDFC. PremjiInvest, the private investment arm of Wipro Ltd chairman Azim Premji, a Canadian pension fund and Carmignac Group of France were also part of the share issue.
