Having made multi-million dollar bets on Indian startups like Snapdeal and Ola, SoftBank today exuded confidence in “surpassing” its stated USD 10 billion investment commitment in India as it looks for newer opportunities in the country.
SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son, who called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, said, “India has the best opportunity” given the democratic form of governance, huge population base and rapid pace of adoption of new technologies.
“This is the country with such a large population, this is a country which is a democracy, many of you speak English, this is the country where I think new technology is going to happen and new excitement is coming…This is the country where I am very much interested in investing,” Son said at the HT Leadership Summit here.
He added that the Japanese conglomerate has already invested USD 2 billion in India in the last few years.
The company, in 2014, had committed to investing USD 10 billion in 10 years in India.
“…I am a man to keep my words… We have already invested USD 2 billion in the last couple of years. Eight more years to go. I am going to surpass my word on the commitment,” he said.
Son said SoftBank, which teamed up with Saudi Arabia last month for a USD 100 billion technology fund, has already received commitment of over USD 70 billion for the fund.
“I am just looking for opportunities (in India) to make those investments. I think we will find enough opportunities. I have already said that we are committing to make lots of investments in solar power generation in India and we have lots of internet related companies that we have invested in India and we will continue to expand on that,” he added.
The high-profile businessman made headlines earlier this year when he decided to continue as the head of SoftBank instead of handing over the baton to India-born Nikesh Arora.
SoftBank has invested in online marketplace Snapdeal, Ola Cabs and property site Housing.Com and InMobi, an Indian mobile-advertising network. It also has a joint venture with India’s Bharti Group, Bharti SoftBank, the investments of which include the mobile application Hike Messenger, now a unicorn.
In January this year, Son had said 21st century belongs
to India and huge opportunities exist in the country, but wanted the government to develop a robust mobile phone infrastructure and resolve slow Internet issues.
Asked about SoftBank’s over USD 30 billion acquisition of chipmaker ARM, Son said he saw the move as a huge opportunity.
“So many people said you are out of your mind. We paid over 40 per cent premium on the company…But the way I look at it, I was saying to myself I am such a luckiest man, I got a company so cheap,” he said.
He further said the potential was huge as ARM is expected to ship one trillion chips over the next 20 years.
“Over the next 20 years, ARM is going to ship 1 trillion chips… Let’s not make a small calculation, let’s make a big and simple calculation. If one chip is one dollar, its one trillion dollars, which is not bad,” he said.
Source: Business Standard
SoftBank commits $10 billion of investment in India
