SoftBank Loses $350 Million on India Investments Including Ola, Snapdeal

Japan's SoftBank Corp has booked an investment loss of JPY 39.28 billion ($350 million or roughly Rs. 2,345 crores) on its investments in India, including those in cab-hailing firm Ola and e-commerce company Snapdeal.

In the earning statement for nine months ended December, SoftBank wrote off JPY 39.28 billion in the value of shares in its Indian investments, which include Ola and Snapdeal.

"Gain or loss arising from financial instruments at FVTPL comprises mainly of changes in fair value of preferred stock investment including embedded derivatives, such as ANI Technologies and Jasper Infotech in India, designated as financial assets at FVTPL (Fair Value Through Profit or Loss)," SoftBank said in the earnings statement.

The new set of numbers are lower than the loss recorded by SoftBank in November last year.

It had booked an investment loss of JPY 58.14 billion ($560 million or roughly Rs. 3,472 crores) for the six-month period ending September 30, impacted by appreciation of Japan's Yen against the local currency.

SoftBank had led a $210-million investment in Ola and $627 million in Snapdeal in October 2014. It made follow-on investments in both firms.

The Japanese firm has so far invested close to $2 billion in India and earlier this year it stated that it is looking to scale up investments to $10 billion in next 5-10 years.