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The Softbank Group has committed $ 108 billion in commitments from Microsoft and other investors to create a second Vision Fund for investment in technology companies.
The Japanese group said in a statement that it planned to invest $ 38 billion in the fund. Apple and Hun Hai from the Taiwanese precision sector (Foxconn) are also part of the fund. Both companies invested in the first fund.
The lack of sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi was noted by the list of governments and companies supporting the new fund, although they are the cornerstone of the first Softbank fund and the bank. Goldman Sachs investment.
Softbank said it is still in talks with potential investors and expects the expected capital growth of the fund.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg in October that his country was ready to pledge another $ 45 billion through the Public Investment Fund. "Without the Public Investment Fund, there would have been no vision funds, Softbank," he said.
A Reuters source said that talks between Softbank and the Public Investment Fund were continuing, but that the Saudis would wait for a formal bid before deciding to invest in the new fund.
A Mubadala investment spokeswoman told Reuters that the company was still considering investing. The Wall Street Journal announced Wednesday that the Goldman Sachs group would invest in the fund.
Seeing
Investors in the second fund are diversifying away from the Middle East, which has provided most of the external capital of the first fund of $ 100 billion, while Softbank is booming in the sector, with Japanese financial institutions rich in cash and a sovereign wealth fund for Kazakhstan. Among the participants.
Softbank said in May that the first fund had an internal yield of 45% for investors in its common stock, or 29% when preferred shares of debt were included, although earnings remain largely theoretical.
Softbank announced today that other participants in the second fund would include National Investment Corporation of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Standard Chartered Bank, unrevealed parts of Taiwan and the fund's own managers.
Softbank's statement shows that the fund is generally supported by the Japanese financial sector, including shares of three major banks, namely Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group.
Softbank said Daiwa Securities, Dai-Ichi Life Holdings and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings had also signed a memorandum of understanding.
Softbank has not disclosed the fund's financial structure and the value of each investor's contribution and whether investors will provide support in the form of debt or capital.
But a spokeswoman for Standard Chartered told Reuters that the bank would participate in the fund as an investor in debt.
"The fund's goal is to facilitate the continued acceleration of the industrial intelligence revolution by investing in market leaders and achieving growth based on technology," Softbank said in a statement. communicated.
Masayoshi Son uses the term artificial intelligence to describe Softbank's investment portfolio, which encompbades a wide range of sectors. It offers a variety of applications ranging from booking taxis to self-driving, insurance and health care.
Softbank did not provide specific details on the quality of the investments it was targeting, but said a senior executive from one of the listed Japanese banks would participate in the new fund.
The Vision First Fund was launched two years ago with $ 60 billion in support from sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. The fund has already invested the majority of its capital through investments in more than 80 emerging technology companies in the final stages of product development.
Softbank did not say how it would fund its $ 38 billion contribution to the new fund.
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