SoftBank Pursues DreamWroks, Yen Decline Continues

Hiruki Nakamura
29 Sep, 2014
New York City

Stocks in Tokyo gained after the yen declined to a new low in the year and exporters gained. SoftBank offered 30% premium to DreamWorks Animation and valued the U.S. based studio for $3.4 billion.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Stocks in Tokyo gained after the yen declined to a new low in the year and exporters gained. SoftBank offered 30% premium to DreamWorks Animation and valued the U.S. based studio for $3.4 billion.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo advanced after the yen dropped to a new low in the year and exporters led the gainers.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 80.78 or 0.5% to 16,310.64 and the broader Topix index rose 5.35 to 1,337.30.

The yen traded near 109.44 against one U.S. dollar.

Stocks in Review

Aeon Co Ltd slipped 1.8% to 1,088 yen after the department stores operator said it expected operating profit for the first-half to decline by 40% to 42 billion yen. T hews was reported by Nikkei newspaper.

Softbank Corp dropped 1.2% to 7,807 yen and the wireless carrier is in talk with the U.S.-based DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc and offered $32 a share or $3.4 billion, a 43% more than the Friday’s closing price.

Sumitomo Corp rose 0.07% to 1,377 yen after the trading company said it will suspend the operations at two locations of Isaac plains coal mine in Queensland by the end of January 2015 due to recent collapse in coal prices.

The miner said net loss from the coal mine for the fiscal year ending in March 2015 is expected at 30 billion yen or US$274 million.

In a separate statement, the company said it recognize the impairment loss in the second-quarter ending in September of about 170 billion yen relating to the Tight Oil Development Project in the U.S.

The company revised its fiscal year profit forecast to 10 billion yen from earlier estimate of 250 billion yen.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc slid 0.2% to 4,441 yen after the financial services provider raised its first-half net profit forecast to 460 billion yen increase 39.4% from previous guidance of 330 billion yen but 9% lower than the 505.7 billion yen from a year earlier.