A SoftBank store in Tokyo. Akio Kon/Bloomberg
A SoftBank store in Tokyo. Akio Kon/Bloomberg

$93bn SoftBank fund to strengthen ties with Middle East



The relationship between the high-profile $93 billion SoftBank Vision Fund and government-level Middle East investors including Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Company "will only improve" over the coming 18 months, the fund's chief executive told The National in Barcelona.

Mubadala and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have been among the largest investors in the fund, whose high-profile tech investments include ride-sharing apps Uber and Didi Chuxing, Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, and US-based shared workplace provider WeWork.

The ties between the fund and such investors “will only improve as we perform for them”, Rajeev Misra said on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Mumtalakat, the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain, is in early discussions to invest in the Vision Fund, Reuters reported last week. The sovereign wealth fund's chief executive Mahmood Alkooheji told The National it was "very interested and very keen" to participate.

Mubadala is one of the largest investors in the Vision Fund, pledging $15bn to the fund last May. The Abu Dhabi-based company subsequently established a venture capital arm in October to oversee its commitment to the Vision Fund and two other investment vehicles.

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Mr Misra declined to comment on whether the fund is in discussions with Mubadala over a fresh investment.

“They’re already a big investor,” he said.

Mr Misra told attendees of a keynote address at the Mobile World Congress that the fund was targeting increasing its portfolio of companies to between 70 and 80 in the next two to three years, up from 30 at present.

The fund is well represented in the US, China and India, but is aiming for additional investment opportunities in Europe, he said

“A lot of our companies are present in Europe … but European domiciled we only have two portfolio companies.

“So we’d like to see more portfolio companies come to us from Europe.”

Mr Misra said the he envisaged greater future collaboration between the four major ride-sharing companies in its portfolio – Uber, China’s Didi Chuxing, 99 of Brazil, and India’s Grab, which together account for around 90 per cent of the total ride-hailer journeys taken everyday globally.

“It doesn’t make sense for them to be competing in certain localised geographies,” said Mr Misra.

He conceded, however, that such efforts to increase collaboration may fall foul of local anti-trust regulations, as well as personality clashes following an often bitter legacy of competition on the ground.

“We’re facilitating conversations between them and we’ll see what happens,” Mr Misra said.

SoftBank became the largest shareholder in Uber in January with the closure of a deal to acquire a stake in the ride-sharing app.

Under the deal announced in October, a SoftBank-led consortium agreed to a large purchase of Uber shares from existing shareholders, alongside a $1.25bn investment of cash in the ride-sharing app.

The investors in the consortium, which also include US-based Sequoia Capital, together now hold 17.5 per cent of the company, with Softbank alone holding 15 per cent.

Mr Misra, who now sits on Uber's board, told CNBC yesterday he supported the US company's plans to list publically in 2019, under plans set out in November by the ride-sharer’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

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BRIEF SCORES

England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)  
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)

Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1

Results

STAGE

1 . Filippo Ganna (Ineos) - 0:13:56

2. Stefan Bissegger (Education-Nippo) - 0:00:14

3. Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) - 0:00:21

4. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) - 0:00:24

5. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) - 0:00:30

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) - 4:00:05

2. Joao Almeida (QuickStep) - 0:00:05

3. Mattia Cattaneo (QuickStep) - 0:00:18

4. Chris Harper (Jumbo-Visma) - 0:00:33

5. Adam Yates (Ineos) - 0:00:39

Stree

Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5

Our legal consultant

Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

MATCH INFO

Barcelona 4 (Messi 23' pen, 45 1', 48', Busquets 85')

Celta Vigo 1 (Olaza 42')

Game Changer

Director: Shankar 

Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram

Rating: 2/5