Global private equity giant Blackstone will double its exposure in India over the next few years to $100 billion, co-founder, chairman and CEO Stephen A Schwarzman said on Wednesday.
“India has been a great market for us, giving us best returns globally. We are not rigid about the (allocated) investments in India,” Schwarzman said during a meeting with the media in Mumbai. He indicated that the company could double its AUM (assets under management) in the country over the next few years.
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The PE major, which has been in the country for two decades now, started its India journey with a commitment of $1 billion.
It has an AUM of $50 billion in India currently, with nearly $30 billion in real estate assets the rest in PE investments across sectors like healthcare, software, and support services such as VFS Global. Interestingly, the firm’s global AUM – currently at $1.1 trillion – when it entered India 20 years ago was $50 billion.
Going forward, the firm plans to launch its infrastructure investing and credit business in the country, though neither Schwarzman nor the Blackstone India officials gave a timeline on the launch for either.
“We would like to invest in physical as well as digital infrastructure projects. Transportation could be a key focus area, including ports, airports and roads,” Schwarzman said.
On the digital infrastructure side, the investment firm has already committed $6 billion towards developing data centres in the country. It will also look at opportunities in areas like telecom towers.
Schwarzman also said that India is well placed to tackle the impact of US tariffs considering how the meeting between the countries’ premiers ended in the signing of a trade agreement. He also said that one should not lean into the slowdown in growth rate to under 6% too heavily (against 9% when the firm entered India), since it is the fastest growing economy in the world.
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Blackstone Private Equity’s Asia head Amit Dixit said its credit business will be focused on performing corporate credit where it will support an entity or an individual in specific situations like acquisitions or stake buy where the banking system is not able to deliver.
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