Base Case: Bank and Sprint

base case: Back in 2015 the stock market was focusing on the imminent demise of telecommunications giant Sprint S, -5.85% in which Soft Bank SFTBY, -0.85%9984, -2.53% has a substantial stake, according to Market Watch. Our base case concluded that even if Sprint went bankrupt, it would have a minimal impact on our estimate of Soft Bank's value per share. But despite all evidence to the contrary, Soft Bank stock remains widely hated and misunderstood. Also, the market was missing an important point Since Soft Bank owned more than 80% of Sprint, it had to consolidate Sprint's debt on its balance sheet, which overstated Soft Bank's true indebtedness by more than 40 billion. I cannot tell you how many articles I read at the time that focused on Sprint's problems and Soft Bank's indebtedness and failed to see this important nuance. Sprint was an independent legal entity, and thus Sprint's debt was non-recourse to Soft Bank. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.