Blackstone says India top Asian market, eyes infra investments

India will continue to be Blackstone’s biggest market in Asia and the private equity giant may consider infrastructure investments there in the future, a top company executive said on Tuesday.

The U.S-based firm, which manages nearly a trillion dollars in assets globally, said India is one of its best-performing markets. It is bullish on the South Asian nation due to its faster growth than other large countries and a “government oriented towards growth”, Jonathan Gray, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, said at a press briefing.

“India is a major part of the anchor of our Asia strategy. Japan and Australia follow that,” Gray said.

Blackstone said it manages assets worth $50 billion in India, including in private equity and real estate.

It has made over a billion dollars in real estate share sales alone in the past year, Reuters has reported.

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Private equity deals in India totalled $32 billion last year, a 27% drop from 2021. However India’s share of total Asia funding rose to 25% from 16% in the same period.

Gray said Blackstone will also consider investing in Indian infrastructure in the future, a sector where its peers such as KKR and Co, as well as pension funds including the CPP Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP) are already active.

Blackstone also plans to invest more in data centres and warehousing, said Amit Dixit, its India senior managing director, stemming from a rise in ecommerce transactions as well as India asking technology giants such as Alphabet’s Google to store customer data locally.

Source: Reuters

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