SoftBank To Ramp Up Speed Of Investments Into India

SoftBank, the Japanese telecom and Internet major has said that its investment commitment to India over the next 5-10 years is likely to exceed $10 billion.

The company has recently announced that it will be making its first investment into a solar project in the country.

Chief Executive Masayoshi Son has stated that the company was looking to speed up the pace of investment in the country as it sees India as a very profitable market.

In a statement, Masayoshi Son said,

We have already invested $2 billion and we are interested in investing more. India has a great future. We are interested in investing in Internet companies and also in solar energy. We would make strong commitments.

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Softbank has invested in multiple industries in India during the past two years. The company has so far invested $627 million in Snapdeal, the online marketplace and is currently leading the funding round for taxi-aggregator Ola Cabs with an investment of $210 million.

Some of its other investments include backing the real estate site Housing.com, Oyo Rooms and Grofers and purchasing a 35 percent stake in a mobile advertising network InMobi. The company also has a joint venture with Bharti Group called Bharti SoftBank which looks at investing into mobile businesses and applications such as the Hike Messenger.

SoftBank also announced last year that it was entering into a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn Technology Group to generate renewable energy to the extent of 20 gigawatts in the country. The project called SBG Cleantech would require investments of around $20 billion from each partner. The location for the project is said to have been fixed.

Despite the recent turmoil in India’s e-commerce sector, Son believes that the market will grow exponentially over the next decade. In context of SoftBank entering the solar sector, Son has said that he only expects support from the government in terms of following international standards regarding payments for electricity generated and consumed.

India is currently making a massive push for increasing the generation of solar energy in the country. It is targeting the generation of 100 gigawatts of solar power by 2022 from the current level of 5 gigawatts.

Arun Jaitley, India’s Finance Minister on a recent visit to Japan has said that a number of Japanese companies including SoftBank are looking to invest in India’s infrastructure sector and want to be a part of the Indian growth story.