The stock price fell sharply after a short period Coded flag letter to Oslo Bürs Friday morning. Here it appears that a Softbank-controlled fund has lent a small stake of about 300,000 shares, meaning its stake in the company is now just under 15 percent, leading to a commitment to the announcement.
Softbank is now free to further sell Kahoot’s stake, without having to report the stock sales. Softbank owns more than 73 million shares in Kahoot, which is equal to 14.96% of the shares. The Kahoot cycle is down 16.5% at noon.
Investors Jan Haudemann-Andersen, Tore Aksel Voldberg, and Kahoot CEO Eilert Hanoa and their companies are among Kahoot’s largest shareholders. Haudemann-Andersen owns 38.7 million shares of Kahoot through several companies, while Voldberg until recently owned 4.35 million shares in the e-learning company through his company, Skøien. Kahoot CEO Eilert Hanoa owns, through Glitrafjord, 41.2 million shares in the company he chairs. These three and their companies together have experienced a paper loss of over NOK 320 million so far due to today’s stock drop. There are many indications that the sharp drop in prices is due to concerns that Softbank is on its way to selling Kahoot.
Everything indicates that Softbank is preparing to sell, says Robert Ness, chief investment officer at Nordea.
Næss has no explanation as to why Softbank would conduct such a complex deal to dispose of Kahoot shares, but notes that two weeks ago Softbank did exactly the same exercise in connection with the sale of Chinese internet giant Alibaba. Shares in Alibaba were sold after being first loaned out through a total return swap (TRS) agreement with a financial institution, with the option to terminate the TRS at any time.
It is exactly such an agreement that the fund, which is controlled by Softbank SB Northstar, entered into with shares of Kahoot.
Softbank problems
Softbank is known to have financial problems and is in a major liquidity crunch, forever looking for new funding.
Næss now downplays the problems at Softbank and notes that the company’s stock price is up about five percent this year.
SoftBank is good at handling cash, not a company in crisis. They don’t have to sell, but they probably will, says Ness regarding Kahoot stock.
Softbank’s message has now reached the other shareholders of Kahoot hard, who in a matter of minutes had to realize that the value of Kahoot’s shares had fallen by more than ten percent. Kahoot stock is the third most traded stock so far with 218 million NOK at lunchtime. The market capitalization of Kahoot is 9.9 billion NOK.
The investment manager is watching Ness with interest, but he hasn’t invested in Kahut himself.
– I didn’t have Kahoot in our portfolio because I think the stock price is too high. Ness says they have a good app, but they are struggling to make money.
Since its peak in January 2021, the price development in Kahut has been on the decline and has fallen by 85 percent.(Conditions)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases using the links that lead directly to our pages. All or part of the Content may not be copied or otherwise used with written permission or as permitted by law. For additional terms look here.
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