While four of its portfolio firms – Zomato, PB Fintech, Paytm, and Delhivery – are listed, it is now preparing to list the next set of companies from its portfolio, which will include Firstcry, Ola Electric, Swiggy, and OYO
The two-year long delay in hotel aggregator OYO’s public market debut may finally end as SoftBank Vision Funds, one of its largest backers, said that it expects the company’s initial public offer (IPO) to happen in 2024.
Navneet Govil, SoftBank Investment Advisers Executive Managing Partner and Vision Fund CFO, also said during an earnings call that the mega investor is very pleased with its India portfolio that also includes the likes of Paytm, Delhivery, Meesho, Flipkart, and Ola, among others.
"We are very pleased with the India portfolio. Ola Electric and Firstcry filed for listing in December 2023. Oyo is also expected in the coming year or so to go public. There is no rush. All our portfolio companies will go public when the time's right...," he said on February 8.
Amid early signs of a recovery in tech valuations, Govil told Moneycontrol in November that the investor had marked up valuations of Swiggy, FirstCry, and Ola Electric.
SoftBank Investment Advisers has pumped in about $11 billion into Indian startups since it began operations in November 2018 and has already clocked exits worth $6.2 billion-$6.5 billion.
Monetisation has been a key focus for SoftBank over the past year as it exited its positions in Zomato (that it received after its portfolio company Blinkit was acquired by the food aggregator) and PB Fintech via block deals.
While four of its portfolio firms – Zomato, PB Fintech, Paytm, and Delhivery – are listed, it is now preparing to list the next set of companies from its portfolio, which include Firstcry, Ola Electric, Swiggy, and OYO.
After a funding drought of almost 18 months, another top executive at the mega technology investor told Moneycontrol earlier that it is gearing up to invest in Indian startups again.
Meanwhile, SoftBank’s management revealed on February 8 that its pace of investing is still in a slump despite three consecutive quarters of gains recorded in its investments.
“We remained very focussed on finding opportunities in the AI space, but the bar is very high. We are ready to deploy capital when we see the right opportunities,” said Govil.
The Japanese conglomerate's two Vision Funds registered a combined gain of $3.6 billion in the October-December period, the third consecutive quarter of being in the black, amid early signs of recovery in tech stocks. The Vision Fund 1 gained $1.9 billion and the Vision Fund 2 $1.7 billion during the quarter.
In the September quarter, the two funds cumulatively lost around $300 million in value. While Fund 1 recorded gains of $2.4 billion, Fund 2 logged a loss of $2.1 billion.
The investor in companies like chipmaker Arm, social media powerhouse ByteDance, and e-commerce giant Alibaba has slowed its pace of investing over the past couple of years as tightening of central bank policies singed funding and valuations in tech.
After playing defence for some time, SoftBank said mid-last year it is looking to take a more active investing role again, particularly by focusing on artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, the parent SoftBank Group booked a $6.39 billion quarterly profit in the quarter, returning to black after four straight quarters in the red.
It marks a long-awaited turnaround for SoftBank and its founder Masayoshi Son, whose reputation for having a Midas touch with investing was hit after the failure of high-flying office-sharing startup WeWork.
More pain came when SoftBank's portfolio of tech startups in its two Vision Funds - which commanded high valuations between 2020 and 2021 - fell out of favour in the higher interest rate environment that followed the pandemic.
By DEEPSEKHAR CHOUDHURY
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/softbank-expects-oyo-ipo-to-happen-in-2024-says-very-pleased-with-india-portfolio-12224421.html
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