The announcement came as SoftBank rushes to improve its balance sheet, including sales of at least $7.9bn worth of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Aggressive Internet investor SoftBank, led by colourful billionaire Masayoshi Son, has picked up an assortment of firms in recent years, including its $16bn purchase of US-based mobile giant Sprint.
But the buying spree has put pressure on SoftBank’s finances.
“SoftBank Group Corp confirms that it is considering a sale, but nothing has been decided at this point,” it said in a brief statement referring to Supercell, the creator of hugely popular “Clash of Clans” and other mobile games. But the Japanese firm did not name a potential buyer.
SoftBank was in talks with China’s Tencent in a deal that could be worth as much as ¥800bn ($7.67bn), the Nikkei newspaper reported yesterday, without citing sources.
The two firms are likely to officially announce the deal by the end of the month, the business daily said.
SoftBank bought a 51% stake in Supercell for some $1.53bn in 2013, before increasing its stake to about 73% in 2015.
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