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SoftBank has invested in several ridesharing companies, Uber, Ola and Grab, but these are on the company's balance sheet and not in the Vision Fund. Didi is the only investment registered by SoftBank in the Delta fund.
The Vision Fund could use this same model to continue investing without defiling Saudi money. The fund invested $ 23.5 billion in committed capital of approximately $ 92 billion as at June 30. That number, which does not include more than $ 20 billion in rideshare investments, will grow to about $ 40 billion when SoftBank announces its profits on Nov. 5, according to people familiar with the company.
There is only $ 35 billion to $ 40 billion left to invest in Vision Fund 1. Without Saudi money, that number would be between $ 20 billion and $ 25 billion.
The remaining $ 15 to $ 20 billion could actually be retained as unspent funds in the fund. This is a common practice for large private equity and venture capital funds, which typically hold about 15% of a fund's coffers in case some companies in its portfolio would need capital. It would be a simpler way to manage the funds rather than return them to the Saudis, which would risk legislating.
The pressure accentuates on his to clarify his intentions. SoftBank did not discuss any of his options publicly and Claure declined to provide details last week on whether the Saudis will be part of the Vision Fund.
"We would prefer not to comment on the second, I mean, when we plan to launch the second Vision Fund," he said. "I do not think about Masa or myself, nobody said that there was a specific date, we will have conversations in the future, there is no certainty. we have no date, we have not organized any fundraising yet. "
The shares of SoftBank, which operates a large conglomerate of telecoms and technology in Japan, have lost 16% since Khashoggi's disappearance on October 2nd.
WATCH: Softbank stock suffers fallout in Saudi Arabia
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