SoftBank’s billionaire CEO ends talks with Swiss Re
The two companies are ‘still on very friendly terms’ and may yet agree to collaborate on some businesses
Zurich/Rome — Swiss Re says it will continue to welcome an anchor investor after Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group ended its pursuit of a stake in the world’s second-largest reinsurer. The collapsed talks mark the end of nearly four months of deliberations about how SoftBank would invest in Swiss Re, though the two companies may yet agree to collaborate on some businesses. A purchase of a stake would have given the Japanese technology and investment company access to steady cash flows and help diversify its sources of income. "We are still on very friendly terms — it wasn’t a sour end to the talks," Swiss Re spokesman Willy-Andreas Heckmann said on Monday. The Zurich-based reinsurer is still open to "interesting anchor shareholders", Heckmann said. He declined to say whether Swiss Re is in discussions with other potential investors. The two sides had disagreed over the price and size of the stake and over how much management control would be handed to Son, people with knowledge of the ...
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