The single largest bet on Chinese tech by SoftBank’s Vision Fund is now USD 4bn in the red as Beijing punishes ride-hailing group Didi Chuxing for alleged data security lapses on the back of its blockbuster New York listing.
The Vision Fund’s 20.1% stake in the taxi app, for which it paid USD 11.8bn in 2019, is now worth USD 7.8bn after Chinese regulatory pressure hit Didi’s business prospects, cutting its market value almost in half.
Even as the Vision Fund recorded a USD 4bn paper loss on Didi, the value of many of its tech investments outside China has soared with booming public markets. Didi’s share price could also recover when its regulatory issues are settled, though analysts and lawyers warned that the investigation was unlikely to come to a rapid conclusion.
Read original article
