SoftBank’s top executive Alok Sama to leave firm

BENGALURU: Alok Sama, a St Stephen’s College graduate, who has helped SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son steer his biggest deals like the $32-billion purchase of UK’s ARM Holdings and the $59-billion merger of US telcos Sprint and T-Mobile, is leaving the firm after a five-year stint, according to two sources.

The 56-year-old executive, who was also closely involved in SoftBank’s early India investments into online marketplace Snapdeal and ride-hailing major Ola, will continue to be a senior adviser even as he leaves his post of president and CFO of SoftBank International Holdings. “He is likely to take some time off but is looking at different opportunities in investment management and advisory besides areas like distressed assets in India,” said this source, adding that Sama has yet not finalised his future plans.

He will continue to represent SoftBank on the boards of SB Energy, the renewable energy joint venture with Bharti and Foxconn in India besides SoFi, a San Francisco-based online lender.

Sama’s exit is “amicable” and he plans to work with the Japanese telecom and internet major on the potential on future deals, said one of the sources close to SoftBank.

The development comes after SoftBank said last year it was probing the source of “unsubstantiated attacks” against Sama and Nikesh Arora, the expected heir apparent of Son, who left abruptly in June 2016.

TOI had reported in May 2017 that Sama was not going to be a part of the $100-billion Vision Fund launched in late 2016 and headed by Rajeev Misra. Besides working on large M&A deals, Sama was also instrumental in several other large transactions at SoftBank — the $10-billion partial exit from Alibaba, the $8.6-billion sale of Supercell to Tencent, and the restructuring of ownership in Yahoo Japan.

An MBA from Wharton, Sama had spent close to 17 years of his career at Morgan Stanley in various roles, which also included setting up investment banking and capital markets business in India. In 2005, he set up Baer Capital, which launched private equity and a real estate fund in India.