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Report: Ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing considering $6B round from SoftBank
Chinese ride hailing service Didi Chuxing Technology Co. is considering raising a new $6 billion investment from SoftBank Group Corp., according to a report published Tuesday.
Bloomberg claims that the round, which would dilute the shareholding of existing investors, may be joined by existing investors Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Apple on a pro-rata basis to avoid a dilution of their stakes.
The potential investment would be on top of the $10 billion raised by the company in 2016 alone, including $7 billion raised in June that included $1 billion from Apple and a debt facility of $2.5 billion. The offering is being considered as a way for Didi to turbocharge its development of self-driving vehicles, an area the company disclosed it was interested in when it opened a development office in Silicon Valley in August.
Softbank’s interest in investing further in Didi comes after a report over the weekend that the Japanese multinational was looking at investing $1.5 billion in Grab GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd., Uber Technologies Inc.’s main rival in Southeast Asia. Didi no longer competes with Uber, having acquired Uber China in August.
It’s speculated that the interest in both companies may be from SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son trying to close the Vision Fund, a fund backed by SoftBank along with money from Mubadala Development Co., which has a mandate to back next-generation technologies.
“The car-hailing business might be limited in market size but if you look at the entire transport industry and possibilities, then Didi is very well positioned,” Trustdata Internet Consultant Zhou Xin told Bloomberg. “Son bet on Alibaba years ago for the potential consumption upgrade that China would experience, investing in Didi would follow the same philosophy.”
Despite closing its venture capital arm in July 2015, SoftBank has still been making numerous investments and acquisitions, including the acquisition of chip designer ARM Holdings plc in September for a whopping $31.4 billion.
For Didi, the new round would bring its total raised to around $17.5 billion from more than 100 investors.
Photo: iphonedigital/Flickr
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