The sale of shares is expected to cover the losses made by the Japanese investor in Didi and other investments
The Uber app. (Credit: Uber Technologies Inc.)
Japan-based SoftBank is reportedly selling nearly a third of its stake worth about $2bn in ride-hailing company Uber Technologies.
The sale will help SoftBank make up for the losses it made in Chinese ride-hailing company Didi as well as other investments such as Alibaba, reported CNBC, citing two undisclosed sources having knowledge about the development.
SoftBank is planning to offload 45 million shares in Uber Technologies. As per the publication, the Japanese technology investment firm had been hit by a loss of nearly $4bn on its position in Didi.
The Japanese firm invested nearly $7.6bn in Uber Technologies in 2018. The following year, its SoftBank Vision Fund invested an additional $333m in the US-based ride-hailing company.
Earlier this month, Uber Technologies’ trucking division – Uber Freight signed a deal worth around $2.25bn to acquire Transplace. Based in the US, Transplace is a logistics technology and solutions provider that is currently owned by TPG Capital.
Through the acquisition, Uber Technologies expects to create a combined freight technology operating system for providing a broad end-to-end shipper-to-carrier solution.
Apart from Transplace, the ride-hailing giant had signed a deal worth nearly $1.1bn in February 2021 to acquire US-based alcohol-delivery service Drizly. Upon closing of the deal, Drizly’s marketplace is planned to be integrated with the Uber Eats app.
Meanwhile, the ride-hailing firm is set to report its results for the second quarter of 2021 next week. In the second quarter of 2021, the company suffered a net loss of $108m, which included stock-based compensation expense of $281m.