Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Japanese telecommunications and Internet corporation SoftBank Corp. on a US$250 million investment in GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd, the largest mobile taxi booking app provider in Southeast Asia.

The deal, which was announced on 4 December 2014, represents SoftBank's largest ever investment in a Southeast Asian internet company. The deal also makes SoftBank the largest investor in GrabTaxi, which offers services in 17 cities across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines.

The transaction follows SoftBank's US$100 million investment in Indonesia's largest online marketplace Tokopedia, in October, a deal in which Herbert Smith Freehills also represented SoftBank.

The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by Tokyo Corporate Head Graeme Preston and senior associates Joe Fisher (Tokyo) and Sally Austen (Singapore). They were supported by Singapore-based TMT senior consultant Mark Robinson and Herbert Smith Freehills' secondee at Softbank, Ed Gutmann. Herbert Smith Freehills worked alongside alliance firm, Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung on the matter. The team was involved in all legal aspects of the transaction which included extensive due diligence, drafting and negotiation of the transaction documents.

Graeme commented:

"We are delighted to have acted for SoftBank in another Southeast Asia technology investment transaction and have welcomed the opportunity to have played a role in their growth in the region.  Recent deals have highlighted a trend of increasing Japanese investors in Southeast Asia, especially in the TMT space. The cross-border nature of this deal provided us with an excellent opportunity for us to showcase the strength of our network in Southeast Asia. On the Japan-Southeast Asia nexis, we have presences in Singapore, Bangkok, Indonesia and Myanmar, which means we are well versed and very well placed in facilitating investments in the region."