Japanese telecoms group SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), the majority owner of U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Corp (S.N), said it bought an additional 22.9 million shares in Sprint at a weighted average price of $3.80. Sprint's shares were up 8.2 percent at $4.20 in extended trading on Wednesday. SoftBank, which owns about 80 percent of Sprint, said the share purchases totaling about $87 million were made through subsidiary Galaxy Investment Holdings Inc. The company said it does not expect that its ownership in Sprint would increase to 85 percent or more as a result of the purchase. SoftBank had lost confidence in Sprint and was considering selling it as Sprint had been burning through cash because of monthly leasing plans that require U.S. wireless carriers to pay vendors for devices up front. However, after Sprint last week reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss, as it added a net 675,000 customers helped by promotions and offers such as doubling data capacity, SoftBank assuaged investors' concerns by saying it had no plans to sell its stake in the wireless carrier. SoftBank's Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son also made a rare appearance on Sprint's earnings call and said that SoftBank would set up a leasing company with other partners to finance payments of devices leased by Sprint customers. SoftBank said on Wednesday it was "enthusiastic" about Sprint's prospects and working closely with Sprint on its "network strategy to enhance Sprint's competitiveness and reduce its capital expenditures and operating costs." At Wednesday's close of $3.88 on the New York Stock Exchange, Sprint's shares had fallen about 7 percent this year. Source: Reuters
