Sprint’s owner will invest in South Korean online retailer Coupang

SoftBank Corp. will invest $1 billion in South Korean online retailer Coupang as billionaire Masayoshi Son expands his overseas e-commerce investments to tap new growth.

A unit of SoftBank will make the investment, which will close at the start of July, the Tokyo-based company said. Coupang is the largest standalone e-commerce company in South Korea, it said.

Son has said SoftBank, the parent company of Overland Park-based Sprint Corp., is entering a global expansion stage and last month promoted Nikesh Arora to president to lead the push. The company’s e-commerce investments already include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., India’s Snapdeal.com and Yahoo Japan Corp.

The Japanese carrier will buy new shares issued by the retailer, said SoftBank spokesman Mitsuhiro Kurano. The company declined to disclose the percentage of Coupang’s shares it will own after the purchase.

Son has said he plans to take stakes of 30 to 40 percent in Internet companies based in Asia as he seeks to follow up his success with Alibaba, an investment valued at $70 billion. SoftBank already has stakes in 1,300 companies, including 32 percent of Alibaba.

Arora joined the board of Coupang last month and will continue to serve as a director, the company said.

Coupang raised $300 million in funding in December, which increased its valuation to more than $2 billion, a person familiar with the deal said at the time. The company had more than 2,000 employees and offices in Korea, Shanghai, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, it said in December.

Mobile sales account for more than 75 percent of Coupang’s revenue.

This story was originally published June 3, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Sprint’s owner will invest in South Korean online retailer Coupang."