OYO Continues To Rake In Profits For SoftBank’s Vision Fund

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has continued to see positive results for its Indian bets. In the first quarter of 2019, the investment conglomerate’s multi-billion dollar Vision Fund has reaped rich rewards in terms increased operating income.

SoftBank Vision Fund and Delta fund together raked in income of $3.76 Bn (¥397.6 Bn). This included unrealised gain on valuation of investments of $3.86 Bn (¥408.5 Bn), based on the increase in fair values of hospitality major OYO and its affiliate, enterprise software maker Slack, Doordash, and other investments.

The gain on investments at SoftBank Vision Fund and Delta Fund was $3.92 Bn (¥414.4 Bn), a 67.6% Y-o-Y growth. Launched in 2017 by SoftBank, Vision Fund is a $100 Bn investment fund, and has a portfolio of 81 investments, as at the end of Q1 2019.

The total cost of these investments is $66.3 Bn, with fair value amounting to $82.2 Bn (excluding exited investments). During the first quarter, SoftBank Vision Fund’s two investments i.e. Uber and Slack went public.

Overall, the company has invested over $10 Bn so far in Indian startups. SoftBank has witnessed an 80% Y-o-Y growth in its operating income for FY 2019. The company had attributed this growth to an unrealised gain of about $12.5 Bn from its investments in ride-hailing company Uber, Indian hospitality company OYO and other portfolio companies.

In July, SoftBank announced the launch of its second technology-focussed investment corpus, SoftBank Vision Fund II, with an outlay of $108 Bn. Speaking at SoftBank Group’s 39th annual general meeting of shareholders in Tokyo, company head Masayoshi Son noted that the SoftBank Group’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBITDA) has crossed over $18.5 Bn (2 Tn JPY) in FY18. Son attributed this growth to its technology focused investment corpus SoftBank Vision Fund.

He further projected that the firm’s portfolio could potentially grow 33-times to reach a $1.8 Tn (200 Tn JPY) valuation in the next two decades.

As the Indian bets continue to be attractive, the conglomerate is also looking to hire a dozen executives in its India operations team over the next few months. The Japanese fund plans to utilise this new team to expand SoftBank’s ecosystem connections.

During his visit to India in April 2018, Masayoshi Son had reiterated his commitment to invest further in the Indian landscape. Sharing his vision for SoftBank’s portfolio, he said, “Making local companies go global while global to go local’.

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