Japan’s SoftBank tipped to muscle up
The conglomerate seeks mergers in ‘land of opportunity’ to exploit its e-commerce potential, sources say
Mumbai — After ploughing about $2bn into minority stakes in Indian e-commerce businesses over the past few years, Japan’s SoftBank is raising the stakes, looking to play consolidator and take a more active role at a trio of leading startups. According to sources with knowledge of the matter, the conglomerate wants to secure a piece of India’s industry leaders in everything from payment systems to online shopping in a series of deals that would shake up the $65bn sector. Among the most high-profile plans is SoftBank’s push to engineer a merger between Snapdeal, the third-largest player in one of the world’s most competitive online markets, and market leader Flipkart. SoftBank has poured about $1bn into Snapdeal since 2014. But competition in e-commerce has risen dramatically, with US giant Amazon cranking up its presence and taking the No2 spot from Snapdeal. CASH INFUSION Besides Snapdeal, SoftBank is also close to finalising a cash infusion of more than $1bn into Alibaba-backed dig...
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