Growing its investments

Strategic: SoftBank Group Corp has already made many equity investments in the biotech sector. — Reuters

TOKYO: SoftBank Group Corp plans to expand its investments in the biotech and health-care sector, opening up a new front in its growing asset management strategy, according to people familiar with the matter.

SoftBank has already made a clutch of equity investments in the sector, including a US$312mil million stake in Pacific Biosciences of California Inc, a US DNA-sequencing company whose stock has risen almost nine-fold in the last year. The Japanese firm is now planning to spend billions investing in public biotech companies, the people said, who asked not to speak publicly because the strategy is private.