Softbank’s US$10bn investment

Japanese telecom and Internet giant Softbank’s investments in India will top US$10 billion in 5-10 years.

SoftBank will make its first US$350 million investment in a solar project in India.

“We have already invested US$2 billion and we are interested in investing more,” its Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said in Tokyo.

“India has a great future. We are interested in investing in Internet companies and also in solar energy. We would make strong commitments,” Press Trust of India quoted Son as saying.

“We are making US$350 million investment in first project in solar (in India). We will expand. In next 5-10 years, we will definitely make probably around US$10 billion of investments,” he said.

SoftBank has a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group to generate 20 gigawatts of renewable energy in the country.

The three partners combined investment would be about US$20 billion.

SoftBank’s investments in the past two years include US$627 million in online-retailing marketplace Snapdeal and leading a US$210 million funding round in taxi-hailing app Ola Cabs.

It paid US$200 million for a 35 per cent stake in InMobi, an Indian mobile-advertising network.

Bharti SoftBank, a JV with the Bharti Group, has a number of investments including the mobile application Hike Messenger. Its other investments cover real estate website Housing.com, hotel-booking app Oyo Rooms and Grofers.

Son is confident of exponential growth in India having predicted that the country’s e-commerce industry would become a US$500 billion business in the next 10 years. fii-news.com