SoftBank
Group has become the latest high profile technology business to drop out of an
investment conference in Saudi Arabia following the snowballing global outcry
over the killing of journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
The Wall
Street Journal reports the last minute cancelation by CEO Masayoshi Son of a
speaking engagement at the Future Investment Initiative conference which opens
in Riyadh today, and runs for three days.
We’ve reached
out to SoftBank for comment.
When asked
last week about its presence at the conference the company had said it was
“watching developments” to “see where this goes”.
Last week
Saudi authorities finally admitted Khashoggi had died inside their consulate in
Istanbul — although their explanation for exactly how he died continues to face
global scepticism. At the same time, explicit leaks from Turkish authorities
have suggested the killing was both premeditated and truly horrific.
Son has a
close relationship with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, attracting
billions of dollars of investment from the kingdom into his massive SoftBank
Vision Fund, which closed $93M at its first raise a year ago.
Since then
it has talked bullishly about raising multiple $100BN funds. But in the face of
a still spiralling geopolitical outcry over the journalist’s slaying, SoftBank
now appears to be playing down the prospect of imminent sequels.
A
spokesperson told CNN on Friday: “Vision Fund 2 is just a concept at the
moment. Timing, scale and details are not decided and [have] not been disclosed.”
Son bowing
out of the Riyadh conference lends further weight to the idea the group is now
cooling on Saudi money. And without the kingdom’s billions to pump into future
Vision Funds, SoftBank’s vision of multiple ‘mega-funds’ looks far more conceptual
than imminently possible.
A raft of
other business and political leaders have also pulled out of attending the
Future Investment Initiative conference as concern over Khashoggi’s fate has
ramped up, including the CEO of Uber — whose ride-hailing business has also
been pumped up with billions of dollars of kingdom investment in recent years;
both directly and indirectly via SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
It remains
to be seen how that relationship will now play out.
As we wrote
last week, the fallout from Khashoggi’s slaying is being widely felt — and
showing no signs of fading away, as investors might have hoped.
The website
of the Saudi’s future investment conference was also temporarily defaced by
hackers yesterday.
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