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The managing director of the Japanese group SoftBank denounced the murder of a prominent dissident in a Saudi consulate in Turkey, while stating that he would not cut ties with the Saudi government.
The remarks made by SoftBank's chief, Masayoshi Son, on Monday were his first public comment on the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who entered the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2 and never appeared. Turkey stated that Mr. Khashoggi had been beaten and tortured before being beheaded and dismembered.
But Mr. Son's comments also highlight a fundamental fact: despite outrage over Saudi Arabia following the badbadination, big business does not want to cut the kingdom as a lucrative customer.
More than a dozen business leaders – from Mr. Son to Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase to Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi – have canceled plans to attend a major Saudi economic conference on Monday. last month, in order to reprimand the Saudi government. (Mr. Dimon later stated that although his company "could in no way be tolerated" by the involvement of Saudi representatives in the death of Mr. Khashoggi, he acknowledged that the withdrawal of the meeting brought "nothing".)
Few companies have seriously considered breaking their contracts with Saudi customers. At the New York Times DealBook conference last week, BlackRock Investment Management giant Laurence D. Fink said It was a "difficult decision" to withdraw from the Saudi conference. But he unashamedly defended the Saudi government as a customer, saying doing business there was "not something I was ashamed of".
In question are the billions of dollars that Saudi Arabia has spread in the business world. The country has pledged to buy nearly $ 110 billion worth of weapons in the United States, although to date it has spent only a fraction of that amount. Business from Saudi Arabia accounts for at least 15% of revenues from BAE Systems, the UK defense contractor. And consulting firms have approached the Saudi government for years, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in fees, so much so that the country's Ministry of Planning has been dubbed the "McKinsey Ministry."
For SoftBank in particular, Saudi Arabia is a crucial part of its future.
The company, a Japanese conglomerate of the Internet, energy and finance, has increasingly leveraged its Vision Fund of nearly $ 100 billion. The world's largest technology investment firm, Vision Fund, holds stakes in Uber, the WeWork collaborative workspace provider and more.
The success of the Vision Fund has strengthened the revenues of the parent company. SoftBank announced Monday a profit of 526.4 billion yen in the second quarter, or $ 4.6 billion, five times more than a year ago, thanks to the Vision Fund's sale of its stake in Flipkart's Indian e-commerce company in Walmart.
Mr Son said Monday that he foresaw that the Vision Fund would propel even more growth at SoftBank. "Next year, we will exceed by far the magnitude we are seeing this year and perhaps a magnitude that the Japanese economy has never known before," he said. told badysts.
But none of Vision Fund's successes would have been possible without the Saudis, who pledged $ 45 billion to the fund. The country's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who led the investment in the Vision Fund – and who is suspected of being involved in Khashoggi's death – told Bloomberg News last month that, without his country, "there will be no SoftBank Vision funds".
Indeed, Mr. Son hopes to create another Vision Fund and it is unclear if this is possible without the support of the Saudis.
Mr Son said on Monday that he had expressed concern over the badbadination of Mr Khashoggi with Prince Mohammed and other senior Saudi officials, asking for "more details on this tragic case".
"They said they took it very seriously," said Mr. Son.
But he said he would not give up his business interests in Saudi Arabia.
"We want to see those responsible for their actions," said Mr. Son at a press conference during the presentation of his company's results in Tokyo. "At the same time, we have also accepted responsibility to the people of Saudi Arabia, an obligation we take very seriously to help them manage their financial resources and diversify their economies."
"As horrible as this event has been, we can not turn our backs on the Saudi people as we work to help them in their ongoing efforts to reform and modernize their society," he said.
Son said that the companies had not refused to accept funds from his fund because of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.
"Relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, as well as between Japan and Saudi Arabia are complicated," he said.
He added that "as a businessman, I believe I should not be involved in the political side of such a case".
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