Japan's SoftBank Group Corporation (SBG) took $1.4 billion hit on account of its investments in two Indian start-ups — cab-hailing service Ola and e-commerce firm Snapdeal.
"Loss on financial instruments at Fair Value through Profit or Loss (FVTPL) was ¥160,419 million compared to a gain of ¥114,377 million in the previous fiscal year," SBG reported in a financial filing on Wednesday for the financial year ended March 31, 2017.
"Financial instruments at FVTPL included preferred shares of Jasper Infotech Private Limited, which operates the e-commerce website snapdeal.com in India, and ANI Technologies Private Limited, which operates the taxi booking platform Ola, also in India," the company explained.
SBG's investments in Snapdeal are held via its intermediary holding company Startfish I Pte Ltd., which has a stake in Jasper Infotech Private Limited that runs Snapdeal.
SBG's investments in Indian e-commerce ventures is about $2 billion. It is the biggest investor in Ola while investments in Snapdeal are to the tune of $1 billion, according to Reuters.
The company is also reportedly planning to invest about $1.2 billion in Paytm, an Indian fintech company backed by Alibaba Group.
SBG is believed to be in discussions with other investors of Snapdeal including Nexus Partners and Kalaari Capital for enabling Flipkart to acquire Snapdeal.
Ola's main competitor in India is Uber while both Flipkart and Snapdeal are facing a tough challenge from Amazon.
SoftBank's operating profit for the year to end-March climbed 13 percent to 1.03 trillion yen ($9 billion) on flat revenue growth.
SBG intends to invest $25 billion over the next five years, making it one of the world's largest private equity investors. "I want to think big. The fund is designed to tap the coming gold rush era," Reuters quoted Chief Executive Masayoshi Son as saying.
