$5 Billion In Loans Makes Goldman One Of SoftBank’s Biggest Lenders

Goldman Sachs has loaned more than $5 billion to SoftBank, making the New York investment bank one of the biggest lenders to the Japanese conglomerate.

As Bloomberg News reported on Thursday (May 27), Goldman was SoftBank’s fourth-largest lender for the 12-month period ending March 31, providing 593.2 billion yen, or $5.4 billion in loans. The bank wasn’t listed for the prior year.

SoftBank’s top lender from last year, Mizuho Financial Group Inc., stayed in the No. 1 spot with 850 billion yen, despite having cut back its loan exposure by 7 percent.

At No. 2: J.P. Morgan Chase, which lent 829 billion yen, more than three times as much from the prior year. It was followed by the new entrant BNP Paribas SA, which loaned SoftBank 601 billion yen. Deutsche Bank upped its lending to 376.1 billion yen, while Credit Suisse Group cut back, falling out of the top 10 after extending 176 billion yen in loans last year.

This news comes a little more than two weeks after SoftBank announced it is seeking an initial public offering (IPO) for PayPay, its QR code payment app. As PYMNTS reported at the time, SoftBank could also list its subsidiary, SB Payment Service. “We want PayPay to IPO in the future so they will become independent. … I don’t think that would be too far out,” CEO Junichi Miyakawa said during an earnings announcement on May 11.

SoftBank wants its investors to have confidence that the firm can expand into new business lines as the wireless market grows and changes. The bank, which currently offers financial services through PayPay, hopes to increase its footprint in Asia with the help of the chat app service Line, which merged with Z Holdings — another SoftBank subsidiary — earlier this year.

As PYMNTS reported in March, SoftBank has said it wants to double PayPay’s customer base over the next three to four years in a drive for a cashless economy in traditionally cash-heavy Japan. PayPay’s first three years saw it attract 36 million users, helped along by SoftBank’s rebates and sales network.