Softbank will focus on Internet businesses: Masayoshi Son - Livemint

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says the bank has the capability and the willingness to invest about $10 billion over the next few years. Photo: Bloomberg

New Delhi: Japan’s SoftBank Corp ., the single largest owner of shares in the world’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba.com , is now turning its sights towards India, where it sees a big opportunity in Internet companies and is willing to invest as much as $10 billion.

Softbank owns about a third of the equity in Alibaba, whose Chinese owner Alibaba Group Holding Ltd . (BABA) raised a record $25 billion through an initial public offering in the US in September. Alibaba shares surged 38% on its trading debut after the IPO, valuing it then at more than $231 billion

“Ten years ago, China was the best opportunity and now India has the best opportunity..,” Softbank chairman and chief executive officer Masayoshi Son , 57, on his visit to New Delhi in close to a decade, said in an interview on Tuesday.

SoftBank on Tuesday said it would invest close to $1 billion in Indian e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal.com and taxi booking service Ola .

Son sees an inflection point in the Internet penetration in India as mobile Internet grows dramatically with the quick adoption of low-cost smartphones in the country of 1.2 billion people. India’s Internet population rose to 238.71 million last year, according to government data shared with Parliament in February.

“It (smartphone) has a very powerful capability, so a lot of Internet services can be accessed on the smartphones or tablets and that will make Internet usable to all the Indian people and I see a great opportunity there,” Son said.

SoftBank is now more focused on Indian start-ups, according to Son. SoftBank has the capability and the willingness to invest about $10 billion over the next few years, he said.

“If we have more opportunity we could invest more... it all depends on the specific opportunity. It is not a budget that we must spend...,” he said.

According to Son, SoftBank’s investment philosphy will revolve around Internet businesses only. Online retail is worth $3.1 billion, or 10% of the organized retail market in India, and is estimated to grow to $22 billion, or over 15% of the organized retail market, in five years, according to a November 2013 report by CLSA.

“We don’t go into food business, real estate… our focus is information revolution so Internet is our key focus area and that is what we understand, where we can bring synergy and that is where we have core expertise,” he added.

SoftBank will be more focused on investing in companies at the pre-IPO stage and some of them will be in the seed and early stage, said Son.

The Japanese entrepreneur will be meeting 15-20 early stage companies during his trip.

SoftBank said it has invested $627 million in Snapdeal.com, one of India’s biggest online marketplaces, making it the largest investor in the online retailer. SoftBank also led an investment of $210 million for a significant stake in Ani Technologies Pvt Ltd , which runs the taxi booking service Ola.

“Our belief is that Snapdeal is going to grow big time from here and I think Snapdeal could become the Alibaba of India,” said Son.

Son has a long-term vision for India and is here for long-term play. India will be among the world’s top two economies in the world one day, “and that is my strong belief,” he said.

Son’s trip to India comes a month after recently elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Japan.

“...He (Modi) invited us to come to invest into India and we had a good chat and that made us more confident and strengthened belief in the new leadership of the new government..,” Son said.