When Masayoshi Son spoke at SoftBank Group Corp.’s post-earnings presentation on Tuesday, India ranked high on his agenda. This is especially significant at a time when China is tightening regulations for its homegrown technology companies, many of which are backed by Japan’s second-largest publicly traded company.
Earnings highlights: Net profit declined 39% year-on-year to $6.9 billion on the back of revenue that rose nearly 16% to $13 billion. The company reported a cash benefit from the merger of Sprint a year ago.
SoftBank Vision Fund, meanwhile, posted a $2.14 billion profit in the first quarter even as gains from listing portfolio companies were offset by the impact of China’s tech crackdown.
| “Our broader thesis in China is unchanged: it’s still a large, growing and compelling economic opportunity,” Vision Fund chief financial officer Navneet Govil said. |
The India upside: On the back of Zomato’s stellar public listing in India, Son said SoftBank’s investment in Swiggy could yield good returns too.
Zomato and Swigyy were the two dominant players in India with an equal market share and Zomato’s share price was doing “great” after the listing, he said. “If they (Swiggy) go public, I believe we will be able to see good returns from here too. That’s our expectation.”
| But Sriharhsa Majety, Swiggy’s founder, recently told us he did not have a concrete timeline to take the company public for now. That was after Swiggy closed a $1.25-billion investment led by SoftBank. |
Meanwhile, Govil said he sees a further upside from the likely listings of Paytm and Policybazaar this year.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said a public listing by its portfolio company Swiggy can also deliver “good returns” terming it as the Japanese investment giant’s “expectation” from the food delivery app whose main rival
NSE -4.13 % has just registered a stellar IPO on Indian bourses.
Speaking at a post-earnings presentation for SoftBank on Tuesday, Son told analysts that his firm’s investment in Swiggy could also yield good r ..
