OREANDA-NEWS. SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG) today announced that Nikesh Arora, SBG's Representative Director and President & COO, is purchasing approximately JPY 60 billion worth of SBG's shares by market trading on the market opened by the Tokyo Stock Exchange ("the transaction").

Nikesh Arora, who is doing this in his personal capacity, has informed the board members, who are fully supportive of his decision. The transaction is being announced in the two weeks post the announcement of SBG's earnings results and is compliant with Japanese and US financial market regulations. It will be conducted as a program trade over the next 6 months.

Elaborating on the move, Nikesh Arora said, "My past year with the SoftBank Group has been very rewarding. As a measure of my commitment, I have decided to take a personal bet on the SoftBank Group and ensure an alignment of vision, with our founder and Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son. This is a large transaction for me, and involves taking an enormous risk in my life once again. However, I am extremely confident about the future of the 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."

Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SBG said, "I am delighted that Nikesh has decided to double down on his partnership with me at the SoftBank Group. As I have said, his vision and mine are aligned and we plan to work together for many years to make the SoftBank Group a sustainable success for decades to come. I expect him 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. Nikesh is a great business leader, a wonderful complement to me, and he's a good person at heart."