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Bloomberg
Billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group Corp. is likely to take a stake of 10 percent or less in Swiss Re AG as it seeks to gain a foothold in the cash-rich reinsurance industry.
A deal would see Japan’s third richest-man follow other business titans such as Warren Buffett in seeking to profit from the cash flows provided by reinsurance. Son is reshaping Japanese mobile-phone carrier SoftBank into a technology investor through its Vision Fund and sees areas of potential cooperation with Swiss Re.
Swiss Re confirmed in February that it had been approached by the Japanese company regarding a minority stake after earlier reports that SoftBank was in talks to buy as much of a third of the insurer.
Softbank may value the Zurich-based firm at as much as $39 billion, Bloomberg News reported. Negotiations about a SoftBank investment are ongoing and remain at an early stage, Swiss Re said. The traditional reinsurance model has come under pressure in recent years as hedge funds piled into the industry.