Billionaire Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Claims $5B Stake In Roche: Bloomberg

SoftBank Group Corp SFTBF has quietly acquired a $5 billion stake in Roche Holdings AG RHHBF, making it one of the largest investors of the Roche, Bloomberg reported.
SoftBank believes Roche’s Genentech division, which focuses on data-based drug discovery and development, is highly undervalued, one of the people said.
Through a series of recent acquisitions, including Flatiron Health and Foundation Medicine, Roche has also bolstered its infrastructure for precision medicine as it can now leverage a combination of data, diagnostics, and analytics to develop new cancer drugs.
SoftBank has been increasingly focused on biotech and health care, with some recent investment in Pacific Biosciences of California Inc PACB, AbCellera Biologics Inc ABCL, and Sana Biotechnology Inc SANA.
Earlier this year, SoftBank was reportedly planning to invest in public biotech companies via its asset management arm SB Northstar.
SB Northstar was launched in 2020 by SoftBank’s founder Masayoshi Son. The billionaire personally holds a one-third stake.
Price Action: RHHBF shares are up 3.15% at $425.50 during the market session on the last check Wednesday.