Valuations in Softbank's Vision Fund Portfolio Hammered by China Regulatory Action

Ride-hailing app Didi Global listed in New York (NYSE:DIDI) but valuations were impacted by China regulatory action (investigation from the Cyberspace Administration of China), aimed at policing the huge datasets that Didi has access to, given its dominant market position in China. This has led to speculation of of a possible delisting.

Vision Fund CFO Navneet Govil (MBA, MEng from Cornell) has asserted the China thesis remains strong. Navneet former roles include SVP of Finance and Strategic Pricing at CA Technologies (which was acquired by Broadcom in July 2018).

Porfolio managers, such as Joshua Crabb of Robeco (part of ORIX Europe), have commented we are now in an age of unprecedented regulatory scrutiny over Tech not limited to China.

£45m Gift for Big Data in Biology

The EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute) based in Cambridge, England, is getting £45m to expand its operations, in particular the Centre's data storage facility. This will be delivered via UKRI's Strategic Priorities Fund. The organization is based in Hinxton, South Cambridgeshire, at the Wellcome Genome Campus, for 25 years, which also hosts the Wellcome Sanger Institute.