Japan-based internet and telecommunications group SoftBank has assigned two former managing partners at its Vision Fund, Akshay Naheta and Kentaro Matsui, to senior roles, Bloomberg has reported, citing people privy to the matter.
Naheta has taken a senior vice-president position to mitigate the vehicle’s investment losses, offering strategic assistance to the management team. Based in the United Arab Emirates, he has been leveraging his connections with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment to help raise the second Vision Fund.
SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA), the subsidiary which manages Vision Fund, hired Naheta in 2017 after a stint at Knight Assets & Co, the UK-based investment firm he founded in 2011 and oversaw for six years. He had been head of principal strategies at financial services firm Deutsche Bank.
Naheta’s investments for Vision Fund included Auto1, C2FO, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, Creditas and Energy Vault, while Light, Loggi and Roivant were also among the deals he had managed.
Matsui has assumed a senior advisory post to enhance Vision Fund’s investment strategy, having concentrated on Asia-based financial, healthcare and logistics technology deals from SBIA’s Tokyo office. China-based Didi Chuxing, Manbang Group and Ping An Healthcare Management formed part of his portfolio.
Matsui had come from brokerage Mizuho Securities where he advised SoftBank’s acquisitions of semiconductor manufacturer Arm and telecoms operators Vodafone Japan and Sprint.
The moves came in the wake of SoftBank’s plan to lay off 10% of the Vision Fund team, the corporate having booked an $18bn loss in the last financial year. SoftBank Group International, the subsidiary of the group that oversees international activities, has already cut 10% of its workforce in recent weeks.
