SoftBank's Indian nightmare: Rs 9000 cr loss

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group on Wednesday said it has recorded loss from investments to the tune of USD 1.4 billion, or over Rs 9,000 crore, for 2016-17 in Indian startups like Snapdeal and Ola.

SoftBank Group Corp (SBG) registered loss from financial instruments at FVTPL (fair value through profit or loss) of  Japanese yen 160,419 million in consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 2017, SoftBank said in a statement.

The financial instruments at FVTPL include preferred shares of Jasper Infotech (Snapdeal) and ANI Technologies (Ola), it added.

SoftBank has also written off over USD 1 billion on the valuation of its investment in Snapdeal.

"This (SBG's loss at FVTPL) mainly resulted from recording a loss as the amount of  changes in the fair value of the financial instruments at FVTPL from March 31, 2016 to March 31, 2017," SoftBank said.

The Japanese firm has multi-billion investments in Indian firms, including Ola, Snapdeal and Elara Technologies, which owns PropTiger, Housing and Makaan.com.

Photograph: Yuya Shino/Reuters.