SoftBank in Talks to Buy Stake in Reinsurance Giant Swiss Re

Son would be following business titans including Warren Buffett in buttressing their conglomerates with healthy cash flows from reinsurance. The billionaire has been racking up a dizzying array of investments over the last year, as he reshapes Japan’s largest mobile-phone carrier and majority owner of Sprint Corp. into a force in the technology world.

SoftBank, which has raised $93 billion of its planned $100 billion Vision Fund, has taken stakes in businesses including ride-hailing, chipmaking, office-sharing, satellite-building, robot-making, even indoor kale-farming. The company may try to offer Swiss Re’s insurance products directly to consumers, including to people who drive for Uber Technologies Inc. or utilize office space from WeWork Cos., two of its investments, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the discussions earlier.

For Gadfly’s take on Masayoshi Son’s latest deal, click here

SoftBank shares fell less than 1 percent in early trade in Tokyo on Thursday. Swiss Re closed at about 90 Swiss francs Wednesday, for a market value of 31 billion francs ($33 billion). Its American depositary receipts soared 8.7 percent to $25.75 in New York. 

“There is no certainty that any transaction will be agreed, nor as to the terms, timing, or form of any transaction,” Zurich-based Swiss Re said in a statement Wednesday. A spokesman for SoftBank didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

To read about how Masayoshi Son is remaking SoftBank, see this story

Reinsurers help insurers shoulder the costliest risks, like claims from hurricanes and earthquakes. Recently, however, the industry has faced some major challenges. A glut of capital -- and new ways Wall Street dreamed up to transfer risk -- has pushed down the prices that the companies can charge for coverage.

Even so, reinsurance has remained attractive to big-money investors. Buffett has used the “float” -- or premiums held by such businesses before paying claims -- to fuel his stock picks and acquisitions at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Exor NV, the investment company for Italy’s Agnelli family, bought control of Bermuda reinsurer PartnerRe Ltd. two years ago as a way to diversify holdings, which range from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV to the publisher of the Economist magazine. Hedge-fund managers from David Einhorn to Dan Loeb have also started reinsurers in recent years.

“Reinsurance, especially through a high-class outfit like Swiss Re, is attractive for several reasons,” David Havens, an analyst at Imperial Capital, said in a note to clients. Higher interest rates could help boost earnings, the industry is generally uncorrelated to others, and “Swiss Re is a gem of a company with top-flight management, generally solid results, a strong balance sheet and global diversification.”

SoftBank has already taken steps in the home insurance industry, investing last December in Lemonade Inc., a New York-based startup that uses artificial intelligence and bots to minimize paperwork and speed up the claims process for renters and homeowners.

Bloomberg.com