Go hard on Soft Bank

Are civil servants in the Ministry of Finance aware of the big ticket funding by Japan’s Soft Bank to many Indian companies. The way Indian companies are receiving funds from foreign banks has surprised many. North Block needs to be vigilant. Are Indian companies really getting clean money? International finance is a multilayer business; nobody knows who is financing whom. Currently, international finance is in a recessionary mode and yet, Soft Bank’s Chairman Masayoshi Son is very aggressive. Paytm, it is learnt, is in talks for funding from Soft Bank. The Alibaba-backed online marketplace company Paytm, is looking to raise around Rs. 12,000 crore from Soft Bank, in the single-largest investment in an e-commerce company. Rajeev Misra, Soft Bank Group’s head of strategic finance, is reportedly looking after the deal. The news surprised many: Saudi Arabia and Japan’s Soft Bank Group will create a technology investment fund along with ‘several other large, unnamed investors’ who are in active talks on their participation and could bring the total size of the new fund up to $100 billion, Soft Bank said. The only solace is that Saudi Arabia’s top sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), will be the lead investment partner and may invest up to $45 billion over the next five years. It is not yet known who is investing the balance $55 billion.

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