The Indian-born financier who helped open the floodgates to Middle Eastern wealth for Masayoshi Son’s $100 billion Vision Fund is attempting his second act. This time, he’s going solo.
At SoftBank Group Corp.’s splashy tech vehicle, Rajeev Misra helped secure commitments worth $45 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and $15 billion from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co. Investments in high-flying startups ensued — Uber Technologies Inc. and WeWork Inc. among them — but many bets blew up as markets turned. Misra largely stepped back from that venture in 2022 after a tenure marred by internal clashes and investment writedowns.
Undeterred by those losses, Misra’s now attempting a comeback — this time in credit. He’s even leaning on the same Middle Eastern network to raise money. It’s a gamble that has shades of the kind of chutzpah he and Son displayed last time round, though Misra now says he’s determined to do better after watching the investment mistakes made in the aftermath of SoftBank's scramble to hire people.
“I have learned my lessons,” Misra, 62, said in an interview with Bloomberg News. He’s already raised $6.8 billion for his One Investment Management from backers including Mubadala and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Royal Group. Misra is seeking to boost the size of the fund to more than $10 billion, and hopes to get Saudi Arabia to invest as well.
While he’s vowing to deploy clients’ cash with a dose of caution, it’s an endeavor that will come with its own set of risks, particularly given his past history with Middle Eastern money. A global economy slammed by two wars and other geopolitical upheaval could once again bring market turbulence. And even Misra acknowledges there are limits to the region’s largess. “Endless well, bottomless pit? There is no such thing,” he said. “If you lose money, that pit is closed.”
No comments:
Post a Comment