Japan’s SoftBank Group has signed an agreement with China’s Golden Concord Group Ltd (GCL) to set up a joint venture firm with a $930-million investment. The JV firm will manufacture and sell solar equipment in India.
The agreement was signed between GCL’s subsidiary, GCL Group Holdings Ltd, and Softbank Investment Advisors (UK) Ltd, an arm of the Softbank Group on 29th March’18. The JV firm will have a production capacity of 4 GW, which will be implemented in two phases.
GCL will hold a 40 per cent stake in the JV, while the remaining will be held by SoftBank. The firm, which intends to work on the photovoltaic (PV) technology that is used in solar panels, will manufacture PV ingots, wafers, batteries and components.
GCL Group will assist the JV firm to reduce production costs and launch products, apart from providing technology and process support.
Softbank Investment will assist the JV company to obtain project land and ownership approvals, and in obtaining all subsidies and benefits being offered by the Central and State Governments. It will fund the project through its Softbank Vision Fund, which is the world’s largest technology investment fund, with backing from Apple, Foxconn and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund among others. Vision Fund, which had raised more than $93 billion in May 2017, plans also to invest more than $10 billion in Saudi Electricity Co.