Seeking to woo investors from Asia’s second-biggest economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley began a six-day Japan visit on Sunday, meeting Masayoshi Son, CEO of Japanese telecom giant SoftBank Group. Jaitley said many investors, including SoftBank, are keen to invest in the infrastructure sector and be part of the Indian growth story.
“For example, [in the] meeting we just had, they [SoftBank] are looking at one of the biggest investments in solar power,” he said after meeting Son.
In June last year, SoftBank announced it was forming a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan’s Foxconn to invest about $20 billion in renewable energy in India. The venture will aim to generate 20 gigawatts of electricity.
“They have made considerable headway and have identified the location. It will probably be one of the largest investments in those areas,” Jaitley said.
“India has a great future...we are interested in investing for Internet companies and also for solar energy. We would make a strong commitment,” Son said.
The Japanese telecom and Internet giant has made a string of tech investments in India over the past two years, investing a cumulative $2 billion. They include $627 million in online retailing marketplace Snapdeal and leading a $210 million funding round in taxi-hailing app Ola Cabs.
It has paid $200 million for a 35 per cent stake in InMobi, a mobile-advertising network, from 2011. SoftBank also has a joint venture with Bharti Group, Bharti SoftBank, whose investments include the mobile application Hike Messenger. Other investments include real-estate website Housing.com, hotel-booking app Oyo Rooms and Grofers.