Rajeev Misra’s $7 billion fund scouting for India opportunities after debut investment in Shapoorji Pallonji
Misra, who stepped back from his executive role at SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) a year ago, is open to investing in domestic companies from his new venture, One Investment Management, through debt and equity deals. Misra told ET in an interview that One IM, which currently has a corpus of $7 billion, participated in a debt issue floated by the Shapoorji Pallonji group, making it the fund’s debut in India. The $50 million credit infusion was part of $1.7 billion raised by the Mumbai-based Shapoorji Mistry-controlled group through a bond sale that closed recently.
The former Deutsche Bank credit trader said One IM will focus on picking local firms beyond the large conglomerates and groups across public and private markets, to tap the India growth opportunity. He will also look to back profitable growth-tech firms if SoftBank passes on them. The finance veteran remains the CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisers, leading the activities for SVF-1.
In May, One IM was in the news for providing a $470 million high-interest loan to office sharing startup WeWork, one of the biggest failed bets made by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son. It has also invested $250 million in UAE state energy company Adnoc Gas, which went public, and ploughed a few hundred million dollars into the New York-headquartered asset manager, the Fortress Investment group. “The fund made a first close of $7 billion in January, and will raise more in the next 12 months”, Misra said.
“One IM has no investment constraints — it can strike non-tech, tech, debt, or equity deals. We have a six-year investment period, but very importantly, three years to reinvest, which means we can make short-term investments and reinvest again. So far, we have deployed approximately $1
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