\n
\nThe Vision Fund, which is also the largest pool of private capital ever mobilised, and is being led by India-born Rajeev Misra, was expected to be the primary investment vehicle for SoftBank going forward, with all new and follow-on investments in the country to be made from the new entity. It announced its first close at $93 billion on Saturday, during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
\n
\nHowever, SoftBank Group is likely to participate in deals with ticket sizes of about $100 million and may even write larger ticket sizes, while the Vision Fund is expected to be the lead investor in transactions of $500 million and above, sources aware of the development told ET.
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\n“SoftBank Group will very much continue to do its own investments, as and when the need arises in any geography. But it can be assumed that all large investments — $500 million-plus — will happen through the fund,” a person aware of the developments told ET.
\n
\nTill date, SoftBank has backed online marketplace Snapdeal, grocery delivery venture Grofers, online real estate portal Housing, budget hotel platform OYO and cab-hailing app Ola.
\n
\n
\n
\nThe Vision Fund, which is also the largest pool of private capital ever mobilised, and is being led by India-born Rajeev Misra, was expected to be the primary investment vehicle for SoftBank going forward, with all new and follow-on investments in the country to be made from the new entity. It announced its first close at $93 billion on Saturday, during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
\n
\nHowever, SoftBank Group is likely to participate in deals with ticket sizes of about $100 million and may even write larger ticket sizes, while the Vision Fund is expected to be the lead investor in transactions of $500 million and above, sources aware of the development told ET.
\n
\n“SoftBank Group will very much continue to do its own investments, as and when the need arises in any geography. But it can be assumed that all large investments — $500 million-plus — will happen through the fund,” a person aware of the developments told ET.
\n
\nTill date, SoftBank has backed online marketplace Snapdeal, grocery delivery venture Grofers, online real estate portal Housing, budget hotel platform OYO and cab-hailing app Ola.
\n
\n
\nLast week, it also announced a $1.4 billion funding round in Paytm, taking its total investments in India to just about $3.5 billion.
\n
\nLast month, Ola raised about $250 million from SoftBank, albeit at a lower valuation of $3 billion. Both the Ola and Paytm investments were done by SoftBank.
\n
\nBut the Vision Fund will also have to deal with conflicts, which may prevent follow-on investments from it in some of Soft-Bank’s existing India portfolio.
\n
\nFor instance, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is the largest backer of the Vision Fund, also invested $3.5 billion in Uber last year. Uber is competing with Ola, which counts SoftBank as its largest shareholder, for market leadership in India right now.
\n
\nThe Japanese telecom-to-technology conglomerate is also in advanced talks to invest in Flipkart, the country’s largest online retailer, that could see the former invest close to $1.5 billion in the Bengaluru-based ecommerce company, part of a deal said to involve the acquisition of Snapdeal.
\n
\nThat investment, if successful, is likely to be led by the Vision Fund, given its size. SoftBank is also considering a follow-on round in OYO, which may also come from the Vision Fund.
\n
\nBIG INVESTORS AMONG BACKERS<\/strong>
The Vision Fund counts some of the biggest investors in the world as its backers, having received commitments from the likes of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co, Apple<\/a>, Qualcomm<\/a>, Foxconn Technology<\/a> Group, has said it expects to announce the close of the largestever technology fund within the next six months.
\n
\nSoftBank is also a limited partner (LP), having put in about $28 million in the fund, which will invest in sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, telecom and computing infrastructure, among others.
\n
\nThe fund, which, according to sources, already has a deal pipeline estimated at $40 billion, is expected to largely invest most of its corpus in the US and Europe, given the greater maturity of their markets, and will also consider buyout opportunities.
\n
While being led by Misra from London, the Jersey, UK-headquartered Vision Fund will also have SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son<\/a> on its investment committee. The LPs in the fund, however, will not have any representation on the same.
\n
\nMisra, 54, an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and the MIT Sloan School of Management, is a former Deutsche Bank and UBS fixed income veteran who made his name betting against subprime mortgages ahead of the financial crisis. He was also instrumental in arranging financing for the heavily leveraged Softbank for its $32 billion acquisition of UK-based chip maker ARM Holdings in July last year, also the Japanese investment major's biggest bet till date.
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