SoftBank books $350 mn loss on Indian investments like Ola, Snapdeal

09 Feb 2017

Japanese telecom annd investment company SoftBank Corp has booked an investment loss of ¥39.28 billion ($350 million) on its investments in India, including those in cab-hailing firm Ola and ecommerce company Snapdeal, it its earnings statement for nine months ended December.

"Gain or loss arising from financial instruments at FVTPL comprises mainly of changes in fair value of preferred stock investment including embedded derivatives, such as ANI Technologies and Jasper Infotech in India, designated as financial assets at FVTPL (Fair Value Through Profit or Loss)," SoftBank said in the earnings statement.

The new set of numbers is lower than the loss recorded by SoftBank in November last year.

It had booked an investment loss of ¥58.14 billion ($560 million) for the six-month period ending 30 September, impacted by appreciation of Japan's yen against the rupee.

SoftBank had led a $210-million investment in Ola and $627 million in Snapdeal in October 2014. It made follow-on investments in both firms.

The Japanese firm has so far invested close to $2 billion in India and earlier this year it stated that it is looking to scale up investments to $10 billion in next 5-10 years.