SoftBank, Naver JV to tender 2% stake in Line operator's $1 bln buyback

A joint venture of Japan's SoftBank Corp 9434 and South Korea's Naver 035420 will sell back about 2% of its 64.42% stake in LY Corp 4689, which operates the popular messaging app Line, LY said in a share buyback disclosure on Friday.

The stake of LY owned by the SoftBank-Naver venture "A Holdings" will be down to 62.50% when LY's 150 billion yen ($1.01 billion) buyback program is completed, the company said.

The buyback is intended to increase the liquidity of its shares to the levels mandated by the Tokyo Stock Exchange for companies listed on its Prime Market and unrelated to the Line data leak issue, an LY spokesperson said.

($1 = 148.7500 yen)