The Big Short’s Eisman bets on more pain for SoftBank – the Japanese investment giant with a big stake in WeWork and the owner of Arm Holdings
- Steve Eisman was played by Steve Carell in a 2015 film about short selling
- The investor is now betting SoftBank shares will fall after WeWork bailout
- The Japanese firm is facing scrutiny over its investments after WeWork bust
The investor made famous by the Hollywood movie The Big Short is betting on more pain for SoftBank, the Japanese investment giant that bailed out WeWork and bought UK microchip maker Arm Holdings.
Steve Eisman, who was played by Steve Carell in the 2015 film about investors cashing in on the collapse of the American housing market and subsequent global financial crisis, is shorting shares in SoftBank for the first time, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Short-selling is a way of profiting from a falling share price. Filings for Eisman’s Absolute Alpha Fund show the position is worth about £1 million – more than 3 per cent of the fund.
Steve Eisman was played by Steve Carell in a 2015 film about investors cashing in on the collapse of the American housing market
Eisman’s employer, New York-based Neuberger Berman, declined to comment on reasons for betting against SoftBank, but the Japanese firm has faced mounting scrutiny over its vast web of investments after the near-collapse of WeWork.
The office-sharing company failed to entice Wall Street banks to invest in its $47 billion (£35 billion) flotation and had to be rescued by SoftBank in October.
That raised fears for SoftBank’s other investments and strategy for its £100 billion Vision Fund.
The company, run by eccentric Japanese-Korean billionaire Masayoshi Son, has spent billions on stakes in high-risk, loss-making technology firms such as Uber.
It bought British iPhone chip designer Arm Holdings in 2016 for £24 billion and has since amassed stakes in London-based supply chain finance firm Greensill, video gaming firm Improbable, small business bank Oaknorth, and satellite company OneWeb.