TOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Japan's SoftBank Group

is expected to report a modest first-quarter profit on Wednesday

but investors are set to hone in on whether the tech investment

giant will either announce a major share buyback or flag its

willingness to embark on one.

The results come amid much market turmoil, particularly for

large-cap Japanese stocks and major tech companies - of which

SoftBank is both - hurt by a massive unwinding of yen carry

trades and U.S. recession fears. Its shares slumped almost 20%

on Monday but regained nearly half those losses as of Tuesday

afternoon.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has faced renewed investor

clamour this year for the company to buy back shares given that

its market capitalisation trades at a large discount to the

combined value of its assets - a discount that continues to

grow.

Most analysts estimate the discount at around 60% compared

to 53% at end-March and 36% as of end-June 2023.

In particular, activist investor Elliott Management has

called for a $15 billion share buyback programme after

rebuilding a stake worth more than $2 billion, a person familiar

with the matter said in June.

Several analysts have since echoed that call, with some

noting that this week's market turmoil has likely resulted in an

even wider gap between SoftBank's market value and its net asset

value, increasing the rationale for a large buyback.

They also note SoftBank had $26 billion of cash on hand as

of end-March.

"We think they're in a very comfortable situation with the

balance sheet," said Rolf Bulk of New Street Research, who

believes SoftBank should embark on a buyback programme worth

more than $10 billion.

SoftBank's net profit likely came in at 109 billion yen

($748 million) in April-June, according to an average of five

analyst estimates collated by LSEG and Reuters. That would mark

its third quarter in a row of profit and compares to a loss of

316.2 billion yen in the same period a year prior.

The investment behemoth, whose biggest holding is its 90%

stake in chip designer Arm, has been cautiously

rebuilding its finances after the failure of high-flying

office-sharing startup WeWork and SoftBank's portfolio of tech

firms in its two Vision Funds fell out of favour in a

high-interest rate environment.

It only invested some $4 billion in each of the last two

financial years.

More recently, SoftBank led a $1 billion funding round in

British self-driving car startup Wayve and bought British

artificial intelligence chipmaker Graphcore for an undisclosed

sum in July.

It invested $200 million in Tempus AI ( TEM ), which works

in artificial intelligence-enabled precision medicine, in April

before the startup listed on the Nasdaq in June. SoftBank and

Tempus announced a Japan-based joint venture the same month.

($1 = 145.67 yen)