SoftBank aims to invest $25 bn in Saudi Arabia in next 3-4 years

SoftBank has planned to invest as much as $25 billion in Saudi Arabia over the next three to four years, according to Bloomberg.

The Japanese telecom conglomerate aims to spend up to $15 billion in a yet-to-be-built city called Neom on the Red Sea coast. Last month, Saudi Arabia announced to build the mega city that will cost $500 billion. SoftBank also will have some of its portfolio companies open offices in Neom.

Besides, the Japanese company’s Vision Fund also plans investments of as much as $10 billion in state-controlled Saudi Electricity Co. as part of efforts to diversify the utility into renewables and solar energy. It may also buy a significant stake in the company.

The announcement comes after the West Asian country witnessed the total foreign direct investment of worth $7.45 billion last year.

The Bloomberg reported that Masayoshi Son has been bolstering ties with Saudi Arabia since raising $45 billion from the country’s Public Investment Fund for a $100 billion fund this year.

SoftBank bullish about India

In 2015, Softbank announced that it has plans to invest around $20 billion in solar-energy projects in India and develop at least 20 gigawatts (GW) capacity of solar project.

In April 2017, a joint venture of Softbank, Foxconn Technologies, and Bharti Enterprises announced that it has commissioned the world’s seventh largest solar power project in India.

Besides, the Japanese telecom company has made over $6 billion of investments in start-ups in India. This year alone, the conglomerate committed $4 billion, out of which, more than half was invested in Bengaluru-based e-commerce firm Flipkart.

The top three major investees of SoftBank are Flipkart, Paytm and Ola, where it invested $2600 million, $1400 million and $1360 million, respectively.